As someone working in education I can say, this is exactly how good education should be and how you introduce people into a new topic! Do not start with what an expert would minimally want, but start with the person that gets the introduction. And then also, the circling with the spirits and additives you mention is again something you would do in education, called a spiral curriculum, to slowly delve deeper into the topic. Awesome video! If you plan on doing similar types of videos concerning topics around cooking, I am looking forward to those as well!
Great advice, applies to many different hobbies or interests. For woodworking which I'm familiar with I see way too many beginners dump a whole lot of money on expensive equipment just to get bored half a year later. Get the tools (spirits) as you need them for your current project (cocktail).
For years I drank an inexpensive blended Scotch called Grant's Black Barrel (unfortunately now delisted), and I took a lot of flak over the fact that it was "cheap" aka $28 bucks a bottle. But I liked it, so why not? Similarly, as an expatriate Nova Scotian I had (too much) experience with Captain Morgan's dark rum - since the provincial drink at that time was "rum n Coke". I think that the gentrification of drinking has been great for the industry and for putting forward the many artisanal choices, but with the not-unexpected snobbery. Drink what you like!
When we built our bar last year it was done around the drinks we like which are mostly Tiki drinks. I'd rather only have Dark rum, vodka and gin on hand and a bunch of different juices and syrups(grenadine, orgeat etc) than buy a bunch of alcohol that I'll never drink or in the case of vermouth that I toss because it was opened for one drink and never used again.
As someone who already has a well stocked bar (actually more of a collection because I don't really drink much) this is perfect advice for everyone starting out. If you buy what you're interested in and enjoy you'll end up with everything you "need". Also as more people know it's a hobby of yours it starts to be a default gift for you which helps with the cost. The only thing I would add is that as your collection increases and you're friends start to notice it's good to have some decent but budget conscious go to options of things like whiskey, rum, gin, ect. on hand. I love to share my top shelf bottles with friends to get to appreciate them with other people and will happily pour them what they want but one or two drinks in if someone is pouring half a can of coke into their whiskey to the point where they can't taste it anymore they might start getting the budget bottle haha.
As always, you deliver a culinary (or in this case, cocktail chemistry) adventure that is both entertaining and educational. The passion that you have for every thing you present on your channel is VERY much appreciated and enjoyed. (Though we did miss Jules in this one)
That wasn't my problem. I had an alcohol for everyone and everyone came over and drank my booze! I was left with what I liked and drank which is what I started with in the first place.
Howdy Glen, I really appreciate your perspective here and thank you for putting this video together. My approach was basically the same as you shared though it had a slightly different progression. I really enjoyed Long Island Ice Tea so I ended up starting my bar with the cheapest bottles of clear spirits I could find. Then once I had finished a bottle out I would swap it out for another brand and figure out what the different flavor profiles were. In the short term it gave me a tremendous number of options for guests as with a couple different adjuncts (fruit, herbs, bitters, coffee, etc) I could make budget versions of most of the common bar drinks. Now that I am a bit older and have kids I cant exactly mix up a LIIT on a weeknight but I now know enough about the spirits I do stock to move out into other classic cocktails; that are a little bit more "moderate". Over time I have also grown in my appreciation of the complexity offered by dark spirits and have naturally branched out into them. all that to say: your bar is very much like your kitchen, its your own personal adventure to experience. Don't cheapen the process by going online and buying the overhyped $60+ bottle because it "should" be good. Its like all those spices in your cupboard that remain forgotten because some cookbook told you that you needed to have them but then they never got used (I'm looking at you Marjoram).
That Spirit of York vodka is great, although I think their gin is my favourite gin I've ever had the pleasure to taste. Fantastically balanced with just the right juniper, citrus and spice that it goes just about perfect in all my favourite drinks.
Love this recommendation to get what you love. First time I heard that vermouth degraded, think mine are hitting the bin. I'd love to hear about bitters. Years ago we were in New Orleans, of course, in a bar. Early afternoon and chatting with the bartender. Next thing we knew, we were trying things we didn't know we liked. These kinds of bartenders are few and far between. In my Nor Cal home, there is one, out of 200+ bars, and so many we find, are extremes. The extremely low price and the extremely overpriced, not particularly extremely good. And could a bar have Luxardo please for my manhattan? And not dump a maraschino cherry and its juice into the cocktail? Thanks Glen. Great info!
Glen, this video is amazing, the best advice I've ever seen about starting a home bar! I've already collected 25+ bottles, mostly Scotch and I mostly gravitate around those few brands/bottles I love the most with some exploration here and there. You should make some videos about how make variations of cocktails with what you have at the bar/at home. I have most of the things you showed, but I still struggle to mix them unless I'm following a recipe.
I don't drink and neither does my wife but we always have some dark rum, whiskey, gin and mead at home for visitors. I love choosing and purchasing good drink even though it almost all seems like gasoline to me. :-D So I have to go by mentions and tastes of my friends and family which is a nice challenge.
To your point about liking brand X, I’ve seen a few shows that have had these sort of blind taste tastings with people who specifically said they only buy a certain brand because it’s the best. In most of these cases roughly 70-80% actually picked the cheaper brand.
Blessed is the man who likes cheap booze. Found a blended Canadian whiskey I really like, and I'm riding with that 'till the end. Making Irish Cream with it this weekend.
Really great take on the subject! Wish I saw it a couple weeks ago. You hit it just right. Start with what you like. It should be about mixology anyway. Crafting a better cocktail. Not getting stuck with some dogs!
Great instruction here: I like the analytical, step-by-step approach. The tip about vermouth oxidizing over time was just one point that was worth knowing. Fortunately, I use Noilly Prat white vermouth in making sauces and chicken stock or veal dishes so that product goes quickly. Not so with red vermouth. The tip about looking up mash bills is an advanced one that I recently learned to follow up on. Now I know Why I like Dillons!
It's just such a complex subject, but your explanation of how to build a bar, based on a drink you like and move on from there, is really reasonable. Great video.
This is amazing advice! We have lurched and stumbled into this more or less on our own but not without trying to "build a bar" and ending up throwing away stuff we didnt like. Now we maintain a selection of things we like. We also buy little tiny bottles to taste new things. Its fun to get a handful of them and make a series of cocktails.
Great advice Glen. The biggest problem I have is that I like damn near EVERYTHING! The only “no-go” for me is tequila; but l’ve found a couple of mezcal-based cocktails that DO appeal to me, so there’s even a place for the agave in my bar. I used to give gin a hard pass, but explored that road via a tasting at a local distiller’s, and now there’s an “Old Tom” and a “Navy Strength” that find their way into my glass.
I really like your approach to this topic, it makes so much sense in the way you roll it out. I’ve been lucky enough to inherit a bar with just about every alcohol known to man, and now I have a way to approach it. I Only had my first “old fashioned” a year ago, but have to say, it’s now my number one choice.
I was surprised by your view on absinthe, because most people I know that buy it here (in Denmark) go through the bottles relatively quickly, myself included. But then I realised that its probably because we love liquorice here, and will use absinthe as a base spirit and not just an adjunct
Good job Glen, you brought such a complex topic into a bite-sized (albeit, it's rather large) episode. Perhaps you could do a series of short episodes featuring each base spirit with a cocktail person presenting the pros and cons/what to look for each of them.
@Quintinohthree Two years ago I would have agreed with you. The regulations around Vodka used to be that it had to be a colourless liquid without distinctive character or flavour, and it had to be filtered through charcoal in order to achieve this - so they (almost) all tasted the same, or at least should have. But in the last 18 months that regulation changed, and now there is no requirement that they are "without distinctive character or flavour", so the base grains or potato can add a distinctive character / flavour note to the vodka. (Of course all of the flavoured vodkas are a different category)
Absolutely agree = start with what you like and be true to your own palate. That's true for most things in life (maybe without the palate part, haha). Thank you for another great video!
Thanks again, Glenn! I really love your videos. I love the classics. Martini, Manhattan. And I never understood less vermouth is better idea in a martini. I found that my favorite drink is the perfect martini. I use 2 ounces, London, dry gin, half ounce of sweet, vermouth, half ounce of dry vermouth with a lemon twist. With a Manhattan go with a rye, and don’t add any of that cherry juice. for some reason here in Minnesota and our neighbor, Wisconsin, they like to make a Manhattan with brandy and then add a bunch of cherry juice. In my opinion that ruins, the drink makes it too sweet. The next type of drink I like are sours. Whiskey sour, daiquiri, margarita. Outside of that, I find I really like the last word with either gin or Mezcal, and I like the aviation.
I couldn't agree more. When I started my home bar I bought only the bottles required to make the three drinks I ordered most often when I was out. I got really good at making those three drinks, and then I looked for bottles where adding only one would unlock multiple more drinks. Slow build from there, spending as much time as I needed to nail the drinks I can already make before adding anything new.
I would love a video explaining bitters. I don't drink, but this is all fascinating to me. What are they? What are they composed of? What do they bring to a drink? Why should they (or why should they not) be included in a cocktail?
This is terrific! My husband and I are fairly new to the home cocktail bar game and we have found the Amaro liqueurs to be so much fun to work with! (My favorite is Amaro Montenegro.) I don’t think I’ve seen you use many amari in your videos, but would love to see more of that if you are so inclined. As always, thanks for the awesome video content you provide!
I haven't had alcohol in a long time but there's really only two that I've had that I know I enjoy (mixed with soda). Southern Comfort 100 proof (1 part SoCo, 7-8 parts lemon lime soda) Captain Morgan Spiced Silver Rum (1 part Rum, 7-8 parts Dr. Pepper)
Great video, I have been batting this idea around for a while and I love how easily you go through the basics. Love that Dillon's Gin and the Ketchup!!
17:48 I confess that I put a not insignificant weight on bottle shape in my purchasing decisions. I have limited cabinets space and it really irks me how many spirit bottles have wide bases with long thin necks. 4 wine bottles take up about as much space as some brandy or whiskey bottles.
The near uniformity of wine bottle shapes is quite useful in a way. Would certainly be excellent if you could have a good variety of spirits all in the same shape. I'd go with square-based bottles probably.
Just put your stuff in different bottles. For base spirits I often buy handles, keep them in my basement and then fill up 750s that I keep at my bar, sometimes into a totally different bottle. I have a relatively small antique Gordon's bottle that is perfect for this. I refill my St. Germain with St. Elder because the St. Germain bottle is better looking. It can be fun to find a nicer looking bottle elsewhere that I can use as a decanter for a spirit that otherwise ain't much of a looker or has an inefficient bottle design (looking at you, Solerno).
@@mdbbox5660 I expect rebotteling is where I'll end up eventually. The thought has crossed my mind a few times, but I haven't gone through with it yet.
You need a bottle of Kentucky bourbon! It's the limestone spring water distilled from KY corn and a 200 years old mash starter. Every other is just an imitation! LMAO. Buffalo Trace is 15 minutes from my farm. The corn comes from my neighbor's farms.
I built up a good bar as a teenager through each time I went somewhere and was bring a drink I'd buy a different bottle. I would then decant 1/2 the bottle into a smaller bottle that I would take with me and put the other half in my bar. This way I got to know the drink profile before I mixed it into a cocktail and also got a good mix of drinks with the costs spread out.
I'd strongly recommend buying a small bottle whenever you're trying a new spirit - if you like it you'll buy a big bottle later, if you dislike it you've spent less money on. Re: vermouth and sherry, a can of wine preserver gas can extend the shelf life of an opened bottle by a LOT. Especially if you also keep it in the fridge.
Good advice, all I would add is that lots of people prefer sours. In that case, I would say start with 1 spirit, Lemon or Lime juice, and whatever pantry sweeteners you already have. Use a standard sour template (mine: 2 oz Spirit, 1 oz Sour, 1 oz Sweet) and start swapping spirits, sours (lemon or lime), and sweet (simple syrup, brown sugar syrup, honey, etc.). You can easily expand this with more sweeteners and spirits, and then even branch out to tiki drinks by adding other juices, liqueurs, or spices.
To start I was taught a whiskey a bottle of gin a bottle of vodka and a bottle of rum plus everything needed to make your favorite drinks then some of the basic mixers and start playing or go to a bar
Newfoundlander here. All I've really seen is Lamb's Rum, peach schnapps, voka, Tia Marie or Baileys, and that's it. Nothing complicated. Rum and coke, peach scnaps and OJ, Tia Marie with milk, vodka and cranberry juice. That's it...no fancy mixed drinks. Of course wine and beer are also popular. I'm a red wine girl myself.
If you find that Scotch is your thing, become known among your friends as "The Scotch Guy/Girl" and bottles will just accumulate in your life as people default to that when they need to get you a gift.
I'm not even the scotch guy and that's what a friend brought for a visit. Turns out Costco's store brand scotch is a good enough value to just use scotch for eggnog and now I'm the scotch eggnog guy.
This worldwide bug has caused me to build a rustic bar built from an old industrial cart and it is STOCKED at a level that is wonderful as I can make just about anything and it is equally embarrassing as well. ❤ Buffalo Trace 💘 !! Another great video.
True story. The first cocktail I decided to make at home was a Long Island `iced tea. Let me tell ya. That will kick-start your bar at home. Years later I’ve got pretty much everything you showed us. I love making cocktails. And drinking them, of course.
On Tequila: Don't dismiss this spirit if you've only tried the clear stuff! The aged/brown tequilas (Añejo and Reposado) have an incredibly different flavor profile! The difference from clear tequila (Silver/Blanco) is almost as big as the jump between Vodka and Bourbon. @Glen mentioned the wide variety in types of Gin, and Tequila is similarly diverse in its different ages & styles. As always, exploration and experimentation is half the fun!
Also important that the tequila must be 100% agave... That goes a long way. The really Bad memories I had with tequila was with ones that weren't 100% (regular José Cuervo is like that)
The best way we use is know your friends favorite. We keep a good bourbon, an Irish whiskey, our favorite wine, a dry white and red wine for cooking, a good tequila we buy in Mexico, a sweet sherry and some brandy. Most of our friends drink beer.
This is very much how I think about it but with a little bit of a twist. Here's my way of looking at it. What spirits do you like to drink? If you pick a handful of spirits that you would enjoy anyway, you'll likely already have a few of those on hand. Pick a few cocktails that focus on those spirits that preferably share some adjuncts so that you can limit those too. Grow from there.
Buy what ya need when you want/need it. I have a cocktail book that I just decided I want to try a drink for and boom, my bar grows. lol. Granted, how I have luster dust and a bunch of bitters I don't really mess with, but my whiskey stash is my goto anyways.
Oh, oh, oh , let us talk about bitters, can you use the in cooking ? Non alcoholic drinks ? Some of us can't drink alcohol for health reasons but remember the days when we could. Wow, great show , thanks .
Please, make a Singapore Sling. Hard to find information on how to make a "real one". Most bars leave out a lot of the ingredients. Thanks, I love your videos.
My MIL took me shopping to start my liquor cabinet. She had a cart. The first thing she put in the cart was Tio Pepe (stupidly expensive and not really for the palate of a 23 year old). Long story short, several years later many of her purchases went down the drain. A friend one night suggested flaming some Sambuca. It was so old the alcohol had evaporated from it and it wouldn’t light. Buy what you like and if you think you need mixed cocktails try them at a bar before you invest next months rent.
just like food tailors to your own taste buds, same for drinks. I never understood the "you must" rule when it's for personal preference. I always liked things on the sweeter and sour side so i'd just focus on buying things for a lemon drop or kamikaze. The hard part is figuring out which brand has a better taste lol
Intrigued by your "box of bitters"! Can you tell us about some of the others beyond orange and angustura and which cocktails you use them in? I have a bottle of cranberry bitters and one of walnut bitters and I never know what to use them in!
Hey Glenn love the video as always, I've recently been broadening my bar with lots of different whiskey types and brands. I noticed you said you were local to Toronto so was wondering if you have ever tried NB Distillers, it's based out of Welland Ontario and they make two delicious but reasonably priced whiskeys as well as a vodka and cardamom vodka (which I'm sure you'd enjoy) it's really great stuff and supporting local is always a great feeling for me! keep up the great work, cheers!
"So you've been out on the googler." Lol. You did make sense and help me, thank you; I know practically nothing about cocktails. Can anyone tell me if there is a ginger cocktail additive other than ginger ale or ginger beer that I can add to my home bar?
There are some interesting ginger liqueurs out there (although I can't bring any names to mind at the moment), and Serious Eats also has a recipe for making your own. Depending on your garnish preferences, candied or crystalized ginger slices might be a thing to consider.
"The Ginger People" is a company with a variety of products that might work and would probably have to be refrigerated. In a pinch, you could just add some ginger powder or even ginger paste, but they'll cloud up your drink. OR you could steep some ginger root in the alcohol of choice and go with that. Good luck and cheers!
Maybe you could do a video about the base flavour profiles linked to the categories of spirit, and then a sort of tree of popular derivatives from that. That would certainly be interesting, especially if it ended with a family tree of the things one likes, starting from that base.
My tip for building a bar: Throw a cocktail party and ask people to bring their favorite spirits! Provide some bar tools and some citrus, syrups, and several bags of ice you'll have a good time and come away with probably a good starter collection of bottles.
Great advice! I wish I would have started out that way. I have a couple hundred dollars worth of bottles that I don't use. I'm not quite ready to label them as dogs just yet but that money would have been more useful spent elsewhere.
At the beginning, with all the bottles coming out. "This does not make sense for Glen's vibe. He should tell me to start with what I like." Glen takes everything away and tells me to buy what I like. Me: Ah! My husband: HOW DID YOU KNOW. Thanks for encouraging people to eat and drink what they love and not worry about having the perfect Instagram bar.
Hullo, Glen! Thank you for today's video. That's... a lot of bottles! :-D I have a question. I'm unable to drink much alcohol, but I do love to sip on a nice drink from time to time: would it be possible for you to do a video with some recommendations for cordials or syrups which I could use to make things I could drink regularly? One thing I'd like to know is if there are better brands for cordials than I can get in the store -- grenadine, for example. I'd be terribly grateful for any suggestions. Thank you.
This video nicely distills the opinion I've formed over impecunious decades of "start small, with what you already like." I'm never going to lay out lots of money for a bunch of bottles I'm never going to touch just because J. Random Internet Dude said to do it. I'd also suggest, especially if you're not a big drinker to begin with, that stocking some of what your most-invited friends like is a good place to be.
I think another addition to this is look local. So many new local distilleries now. Maybe not go with them for the bourbons and whiskeys but they often make fantastic vodkas and gins.
As someone working in education I can say, this is exactly how good education should be and how you introduce people into a new topic! Do not start with what an expert would minimally want, but start with the person that gets the introduction. And then also, the circling with the spirits and additives you mention is again something you would do in education, called a spiral curriculum, to slowly delve deeper into the topic. Awesome video!
If you plan on doing similar types of videos concerning topics around cooking, I am looking forward to those as well!
Good video! I have never understood people that feel it necessary to take the joy out of things for other people. Leave my brand x alone!
2022: A great year to start drinking!
Great advice, applies to many different hobbies or interests. For woodworking which I'm familiar with I see way too many beginners dump a whole lot of money on expensive equipment just to get bored half a year later. Get the tools (spirits) as you need them for your current project (cocktail).
You are such a helpful person. The world is a kinder place because you are in it.
For years I drank an inexpensive blended Scotch called Grant's Black Barrel (unfortunately now delisted), and I took a lot of flak over the fact that it was "cheap" aka $28 bucks a bottle. But I liked it, so why not? Similarly, as an expatriate Nova Scotian I had (too much) experience with Captain Morgan's dark rum - since the provincial drink at that time was "rum n Coke". I think that the gentrification of drinking has been great for the industry and for putting forward the many artisanal choices, but with the not-unexpected snobbery. Drink what you like!
The best advice I've ever heard concerning bar stock. Excellent Glen!
When we built our bar last year it was done around the drinks we like which are mostly Tiki drinks. I'd rather only have Dark rum, vodka and gin on hand and a bunch of different juices and syrups(grenadine, orgeat etc) than buy a bunch of alcohol that I'll never drink or in the case of vermouth that I toss because it was opened for one drink and never used again.
As someone who already has a well stocked bar (actually more of a collection because I don't really drink much) this is perfect advice for everyone starting out. If you buy what you're interested in and enjoy you'll end up with everything you "need". Also as more people know it's a hobby of yours it starts to be a default gift for you which helps with the cost. The only thing I would add is that as your collection increases and you're friends start to notice it's good to have some decent but budget conscious go to options of things like whiskey, rum, gin, ect. on hand. I love to share my top shelf bottles with friends to get to appreciate them with other people and will happily pour them what they want but one or two drinks in if someone is pouring half a can of coke into their whiskey to the point where they can't taste it anymore they might start getting the budget bottle haha.
As always, you deliver a culinary (or in this case, cocktail chemistry) adventure that is both entertaining and educational. The passion that you have for every thing you present on your channel is VERY much appreciated and enjoyed. (Though we did miss Jules in this one)
I hope you do that bitters video. This is great.
St. Germain is amazing. I agree with Glen, it can literally almost be added to any cocktail imaginable.
Fantastic video, Glen. This is a great way to *not* throw away money on a lot of bottles that you'll never use.
I fell for the "you need to have an alcohol for everyone" line, and now I have 5 bottles I haven't opened in 3 years.
That wasn't my problem. I had an alcohol for everyone and everyone came over and drank my booze! I was left with what I liked and drank which is what I started with in the first place.
Howdy Glen, I really appreciate your perspective here and thank you for putting this video together. My approach was basically the same as you shared though it had a slightly different progression. I really enjoyed Long Island Ice Tea so I ended up starting my bar with the cheapest bottles of clear spirits I could find. Then once I had finished a bottle out I would swap it out for another brand and figure out what the different flavor profiles were. In the short term it gave me a tremendous number of options for guests as with a couple different adjuncts (fruit, herbs, bitters, coffee, etc) I could make budget versions of most of the common bar drinks.
Now that I am a bit older and have kids I cant exactly mix up a LIIT on a weeknight but I now know enough about the spirits I do stock to move out into other classic cocktails; that are a little bit more "moderate". Over time I have also grown in my appreciation of the complexity offered by dark spirits and have naturally branched out into them.
all that to say: your bar is very much like your kitchen, its your own personal adventure to experience. Don't cheapen the process by going online and buying the overhyped $60+ bottle because it "should" be good. Its like all those spices in your cupboard that remain forgotten because some cookbook told you that you needed to have them but then they never got used (I'm looking at you Marjoram).
Sound advise, Glen! Go with what you like!! Don't just look at price! Thanks so much!
That Spirit of York vodka is great, although I think their gin is my favourite gin I've ever had the pleasure to taste. Fantastically balanced with just the right juniper, citrus and spice that it goes just about perfect in all my favourite drinks.
Love this recommendation to get what you love. First time I heard that vermouth degraded, think mine are hitting the bin. I'd love to hear about bitters. Years ago we were in New Orleans, of course, in a bar. Early afternoon and chatting with the bartender. Next thing we knew, we were trying things we didn't know we liked. These kinds of bartenders are few and far between. In my Nor Cal home, there is one, out of 200+ bars, and so many we find, are extremes. The extremely low price and the extremely overpriced, not particularly extremely good. And could a bar have Luxardo please for my manhattan? And not dump a maraschino cherry and its juice into the cocktail? Thanks Glen. Great info!
Glen, this video is amazing, the best advice I've ever seen about starting a home bar! I've already collected 25+ bottles, mostly Scotch and I mostly gravitate around those few brands/bottles I love the most with some exploration here and there.
You should make some videos about how make variations of cocktails with what you have at the bar/at home. I have most of the things you showed, but I still struggle to mix them unless I'm following a recipe.
HAHAHA...I actually laughed out loud when you brought back those 3 little bottles!
I don't drink and neither does my wife but we always have some dark rum, whiskey, gin and mead at home for visitors. I love choosing and purchasing good drink even though it almost all seems like gasoline to me. :-D So I have to go by mentions and tastes of my friends and family which is a nice challenge.
After watching your Cocktails after dark series - i've been wondering where to begin. Thanks so much!
To your point about liking brand X, I’ve seen a few shows that have had these sort of blind taste tastings with people who specifically said they only buy a certain brand because it’s the best. In most of these cases roughly 70-80% actually picked the cheaper brand.
Blessed is the man who likes cheap booze.
Found a blended Canadian whiskey I really like, and I'm riding with that 'till the end.
Making Irish Cream with it this weekend.
I like to use up older vermouth in cooking. Sauteed onions or mushrooms are delicious with a splash of vermouth...
Everything you needed to know about booze but didn't know what to ask. Thanks Glen.
Really great take on the subject! Wish I saw it a couple weeks ago. You hit it just right. Start with what you like. It should be about mixology anyway. Crafting a better cocktail. Not getting stuck with some dogs!
Great instruction here: I like the analytical, step-by-step approach. The tip about vermouth oxidizing over time was just one point that was worth knowing. Fortunately, I use Noilly Prat white vermouth in making sauces and chicken stock or veal dishes so that product goes quickly. Not so with red vermouth. The tip about looking up mash bills is an advanced one that I recently learned to follow up on. Now I know Why I like Dillons!
It's just such a complex subject, but your explanation of how to build a bar, based on a drink you like and move on from there, is really reasonable. Great video.
This is amazing advice! We have lurched and stumbled into this more or less on our own but not without trying to "build a bar" and ending up throwing away stuff we didnt like. Now we maintain a selection of things we like. We also buy little tiny bottles to taste new things. Its fun to get a handful of them and make a series of cocktails.
Great advice Glen. The biggest problem I have is that I like damn near EVERYTHING!
The only “no-go” for me is tequila; but l’ve found a couple of mezcal-based cocktails that DO appeal to me, so there’s even a place for the agave in my bar. I used to give gin a hard pass, but explored that road via a tasting at a local distiller’s, and now there’s an “Old Tom” and a “Navy Strength” that find their way into my glass.
I really like your approach to this topic, it makes so much sense in the way you roll it out. I’ve been lucky enough to inherit a bar with just about every alcohol known to man, and now I have a way to approach it. I Only had my first
“old fashioned” a year ago, but have to say, it’s now my number one choice.
I was surprised by your view on absinthe, because most people I know that buy it here (in Denmark) go through the bottles relatively quickly, myself included. But then I realised that its probably because we love liquorice here, and will use absinthe as a base spirit and not just an adjunct
I needed this video years ago. Thanks!!
No way you just uploaded this 😂 I was literally just watching videos just like this one yesterday since I’ll be moving out next month 😆
Very nice selection and very drinkable too.
Keep up the great work,
Joe
Good job Glen, you brought such a complex topic into a bite-sized (albeit, it's rather large) episode.
Perhaps you could do a series of short episodes featuring each base spirit with a cocktail person presenting the pros and cons/what to look for each of them.
Some great information in here, I like the idea of having vodkas from different grains, not something I'd thought of before!
If differeny vodka's don't taste the same, at least ome of them is bad.
@Quintinohthree Two years ago I would have agreed with you. The regulations around Vodka used to be that it had to be a colourless liquid without distinctive character or flavour, and it had to be filtered through charcoal in order to achieve this - so they (almost) all tasted the same, or at least should have.
But in the last 18 months that regulation changed, and now there is no requirement that they are "without distinctive character or flavour", so the base grains or potato can add a distinctive character / flavour note to the vodka.
(Of course all of the flavoured vodkas are a different category)
Absolutely agree = start with what you like and be true to your own palate. That's true for most things in life (maybe without the palate part, haha). Thank you for another great video!
Thanks again, Glenn! I really love your videos. I love the classics. Martini, Manhattan. And I never understood less vermouth is better idea in a martini. I found that my favorite drink is the perfect martini. I use 2 ounces, London, dry gin, half ounce of sweet, vermouth, half ounce of dry vermouth with a lemon twist. With a Manhattan go with a rye, and don’t add any of that cherry juice. for some reason here in Minnesota and our neighbor, Wisconsin, they like to make a Manhattan with brandy and then add a bunch of cherry juice. In my opinion that ruins, the drink makes it too sweet. The next type of drink I like are sours. Whiskey sour, daiquiri, margarita. Outside of that, I find I really like the last word with either gin or Mezcal, and I like the aviation.
I couldn't agree more. When I started my home bar I bought only the bottles required to make the three drinks I ordered most often when I was out. I got really good at making those three drinks, and then I looked for bottles where adding only one would unlock multiple more drinks. Slow build from there, spending as much time as I needed to nail the drinks I can already make before adding anything new.
I would love a video explaining bitters. I don't drink, but this is all fascinating to me. What are they? What are they composed of? What do they bring to a drink? Why should they (or why should they not) be included in a cocktail?
This is terrific! My husband and I are fairly new to the home cocktail bar game and we have found the Amaro liqueurs to be so much fun to work with! (My favorite is Amaro Montenegro.) I don’t think I’ve seen you use many amari in your videos, but would love to see more of that if you are so inclined. As always, thanks for the awesome video content you provide!
#1 Bourbon, YEAH Kentucky. God Bless and stay safe.
Yes! You are helping!!!😊
For Australian viewers, go to your local Dan Murphy's from time to time. They usually have something different to taste test.
I haven't had alcohol in a long time but there's really only two that I've had that I know I enjoy (mixed with soda).
Southern Comfort 100 proof (1 part SoCo, 7-8 parts lemon lime soda)
Captain Morgan Spiced Silver Rum (1 part Rum, 7-8 parts Dr. Pepper)
Great video, I have been batting this idea around for a while and I love how easily you go through the basics. Love that Dillon's Gin and the Ketchup!!
I'd love to see your take on it - this is such a tough one to give advice on.
17:48 I confess that I put a not insignificant weight on bottle shape in my purchasing decisions.
I have limited cabinets space and it really irks me how many spirit bottles have wide bases with long thin necks. 4 wine bottles take up about as much space as some brandy or whiskey bottles.
The near uniformity of wine bottle shapes is quite useful in a way. Would certainly be excellent if you could have a good variety of spirits all in the same shape. I'd go with square-based bottles probably.
Just put your stuff in different bottles. For base spirits I often buy handles, keep them in my basement and then fill up 750s that I keep at my bar, sometimes into a totally different bottle. I have a relatively small antique Gordon's bottle that is perfect for this. I refill my St. Germain with St. Elder because the St. Germain bottle is better looking. It can be fun to find a nicer looking bottle elsewhere that I can use as a decanter for a spirit that otherwise ain't much of a looker or has an inefficient bottle design (looking at you, Solerno).
@@mdbbox5660 I expect rebotteling is where I'll end up eventually. The thought has crossed my mind a few times, but I haven't gone through with it yet.
Really good info. Would love to see more : maybe a video on each type of spirit. Cheers!
You need a bottle of Kentucky bourbon! It's the limestone spring water distilled from KY corn and a 200 years old mash starter. Every other is just an imitation! LMAO. Buffalo Trace is 15 minutes from my farm. The corn comes from my neighbor's farms.
I built up a good bar as a teenager through each time I went somewhere and was bring a drink I'd buy a different bottle. I would then decant 1/2 the bottle into a smaller bottle that I would take with me and put the other half in my bar. This way I got to know the drink profile before I mixed it into a cocktail and also got a good mix of drinks with the costs spread out.
Lots of sage advice.
I'd strongly recommend buying a small bottle whenever you're trying a new spirit - if you like it you'll buy a big bottle later, if you dislike it you've spent less money on.
Re: vermouth and sherry, a can of wine preserver gas can extend the shelf life of an opened bottle by a LOT. Especially if you also keep it in the fridge.
Good advice, all I would add is that lots of people prefer sours. In that case, I would say start with 1 spirit, Lemon or Lime juice, and whatever pantry sweeteners you already have. Use a standard sour template (mine: 2 oz Spirit, 1 oz Sour, 1 oz Sweet) and start swapping spirits, sours (lemon or lime), and sweet (simple syrup, brown sugar syrup, honey, etc.). You can easily expand this with more sweeteners and spirits, and then even branch out to tiki drinks by adding other juices, liqueurs, or spices.
Great video, thanks Glen!
Awesome video for lightweight like myself!
This is really greeat advice, well said about everything
Excellent advice! Thank you!
I am reminded of the number 1 rule of wine: "Never let anyone tell you what kind of wine you should like." Could easily apply to spirits too.
To start I was taught a whiskey a bottle of gin a bottle of vodka and a bottle of rum plus everything needed to make your favorite drinks then some of the basic mixers and start playing or go to a bar
This video is excellent
thanks glen
I actually picked up the Kinsip orange bitters at Cocktail Emporium last weekend.
Newfoundlander here. All I've really seen is Lamb's Rum, peach schnapps, voka, Tia Marie or Baileys, and that's it. Nothing complicated. Rum and coke, peach scnaps and OJ, Tia Marie with milk, vodka and cranberry juice. That's it...no fancy mixed drinks. Of course wine and beer are also popular. I'm a red wine girl myself.
If you find that Scotch is your thing, become known among your friends as "The Scotch Guy/Girl" and bottles will just accumulate in your life as people default to that when they need to get you a gift.
Yes! That is My experience. Scotch is My go to drink, and everyone knows it, and My Friends keep me well stocked 😁
I'm not even the scotch guy and that's what a friend brought for a visit.
Turns out Costco's store brand scotch is a good enough value to just use scotch for eggnog and now I'm the scotch eggnog guy.
@@ffwast For some reason, people seem to see Scotch as a more respectable gift than other spirits.
Love this. Start with what you love and slowly experiment. Great approach!
I tried a vodka made with grapes once. Really different. Very tasty.
This worldwide bug has caused me to build a rustic bar built from an old industrial cart and it is STOCKED at a level that is wonderful as I can make just about anything and it is equally embarrassing as well. ❤ Buffalo Trace 💘 !! Another great video.
Great video! If you ever decide to make one about bar equipment/accessories, I would watch. Probably more than once.
True story. The first cocktail I decided to make at home was a Long Island `iced tea. Let me tell ya. That will kick-start your bar at home.
Years later I’ve got pretty much everything you showed us. I love making cocktails. And drinking them, of course.
Would love to see you go over the basics of wine.
I think the advice stands. Drink what you like. Taste things of a similar varietals or growing areas. Circle out from there.
On Tequila: Don't dismiss this spirit if you've only tried the clear stuff! The aged/brown tequilas (Añejo and Reposado) have an incredibly different flavor profile! The difference from clear tequila (Silver/Blanco) is almost as big as the jump between Vodka and Bourbon. @Glen mentioned the wide variety in types of Gin, and Tequila is similarly diverse in its different ages & styles.
As always, exploration and experimentation is half the fun!
So true!
Also important that the tequila must be 100% agave... That goes a long way. The really Bad memories I had with tequila was with ones that weren't 100% (regular José Cuervo is like that)
The best way we use is know your friends favorite. We keep a good bourbon, an Irish whiskey, our favorite wine, a dry white and red wine for cooking, a good tequila we buy in Mexico, a sweet sherry and some brandy. Most of our friends drink beer.
Tank you so much Glen ! That was really helpful !
Absinthe rinse in Corpse Reviver #2 (gin + Lillet + lemon + cointreau) is fantastic.
Thank you for this Glen!
It was very helpful. 🙏🏼
This is very much how I think about it but with a little bit of a twist. Here's my way of looking at it.
What spirits do you like to drink? If you pick a handful of spirits that you would enjoy anyway, you'll likely already have a few of those on hand. Pick a few cocktails that focus on those spirits that preferably share some adjuncts so that you can limit those too. Grow from there.
Buy what ya need when you want/need it. I have a cocktail book that I just decided I want to try a drink for and boom, my bar grows. lol.
Granted, how I have luster dust and a bunch of bitters I don't really mess with, but my whiskey stash is my goto anyways.
Oh, oh, oh , let us talk about bitters, can you use the in cooking ? Non alcoholic drinks ? Some of us can't drink alcohol for health reasons but remember the days when we could. Wow, great show , thanks .
Please, make a Singapore Sling. Hard to find information on how to make a "real one". Most bars leave out a lot of the ingredients. Thanks, I love your videos.
The bars I have at home: a good sound bar for movies, fruit, nut, granola and finally many candy bars.
I enjoyed watching a ten hour video of you mixing a drink. I’m sure I do the same watching about all the various items in your bar
I think your advice is good in liquor or in life.
My MIL took me shopping to start my liquor cabinet. She had a cart. The first thing she put in the cart was Tio Pepe (stupidly expensive and not really for the palate of a 23 year old). Long story short, several years later many of her purchases went down the drain. A friend one night suggested flaming some Sambuca. It was so old the alcohol had evaporated from it and it wouldn’t light. Buy what you like and if you think you need mixed cocktails try them at a bar before you invest next months rent.
just like food tailors to your own taste buds, same for drinks. I never understood the "you must" rule when it's for personal preference. I always liked things on the sweeter and sour side so i'd just focus on buying things for a lemon drop or kamikaze. The hard part is figuring out which brand has a better taste lol
Intrigued by your "box of bitters"! Can you tell us about some of the others beyond orange and angustura and which cocktails you use them in? I have a bottle of cranberry bitters and one of walnut bitters and I never know what to use them in!
Hey Glenn love the video as always, I've recently been broadening my bar with lots of different whiskey types and brands. I noticed you said you were local to Toronto so was wondering if you have ever tried NB Distillers, it's based out of Welland Ontario and they make two delicious but reasonably priced whiskeys as well as a vodka and cardamom vodka (which I'm sure you'd enjoy) it's really great stuff and supporting local is always a great feeling for me! keep up the great work, cheers!
I've never tried any of their stuff - I'll see if I can get any.
"So you've been out on the googler." Lol.
You did make sense and help me, thank you; I know practically nothing about cocktails. Can anyone tell me if there is a ginger cocktail additive other than ginger ale or ginger beer that I can add to my home bar?
Ginger bitters?
There are some interesting ginger liqueurs out there (although I can't bring any names to mind at the moment), and Serious Eats also has a recipe for making your own. Depending on your garnish preferences, candied or crystalized ginger slices might be a thing to consider.
"The Ginger People" is a company with a variety of products that might work and would probably have to be refrigerated. In a pinch, you could just add some ginger powder or even ginger paste, but they'll cloud up your drink. OR you could steep some ginger root in the alcohol of choice and go with that. Good luck and cheers!
Domaine de Canton
Maybe you could do a video about the base flavour profiles linked to the categories of spirit, and then a sort of tree of popular derivatives from that. That would certainly be interesting, especially if it ended with a family tree of the things one likes, starting from that base.
My tip for building a bar:
Throw a cocktail party and ask people to bring their favorite spirits! Provide some bar tools and some citrus, syrups, and several bags of ice you'll have a good time and come away with probably a good starter collection of bottles.
Great advice! I wish I would have started out that way. I have a couple hundred dollars worth of bottles that I don't use. I'm not quite ready to label them as dogs just yet but that money would have been more useful spent elsewhere.
I want the long version! I will watch an hour of you explain alcohol and it’s history, marketing, etc…maybe do a joint thing with Terry O!
Great and informative video!
At the beginning, with all the bottles coming out. "This does not make sense for Glen's vibe. He should tell me to start with what I like."
Glen takes everything away and tells me to buy what I like.
Me: Ah!
My husband: HOW DID YOU KNOW.
Thanks for encouraging people to eat and drink what they love and not worry about having the perfect Instagram bar.
Hendricks has gotten crazy popular recently here in Ireland. I'd say their accountants are loving it.
I don't drink but still enjoyed the video. Could you make gumbo or etoufee?
Hullo, Glen! Thank you for today's video. That's... a lot of bottles! :-D
I have a question. I'm unable to drink much alcohol, but I do love to sip on a nice drink from time to time: would it be possible for you to do a video with some recommendations for cordials or syrups which I could use to make things I could drink regularly? One thing I'd like to know is if there are better brands for cordials than I can get in the store -- grenadine, for example. I'd be terribly grateful for any suggestions. Thank you.
This video nicely distills the opinion I've formed over impecunious decades of "start small, with what you already like." I'm never going to lay out lots of money for a bunch of bottles I'm never going to touch just because J. Random Internet Dude said to do it.
I'd also suggest, especially if you're not a big drinker to begin with, that stocking some of what your most-invited friends like is a good place to be.
Buffalo Trace! Where did you find it..it's all but sold out everywhere around me.
I think another addition to this is look local. So many new local distilleries now. Maybe not go with them for the bourbons and whiskeys but they often make fantastic vodkas and gins.