We’ve got some spoooooky cocktails for all your Halloween shenanigans! Some might push you to try something a little more complicated, but don’t be scared! They will be worth the work. And some will be perfect to share with friends at your next séance or ghoul gathering. Let those skeletons out of your closet, it’s time to party!
Violet Delights
- ½ oz Liber & Co grenadine
- 1 oz lemon juice
- 2 oz Empress gin (must use for the color)
- Fever Tree Club soda
Fill a highball glass with ice, add grenadine, lemon juice, gin, top with soda water and a cocktail cherry.
Kitchen Witch Smash
Mezcal is the star this week for a spooky smoky cocktail. This one is a little extra work but will be worth it! For an extra witchy vibe, repeat a mantra or set some good intentions while you muddle your ingredients. Or hex someone, we won’t tell.
- 8 fresh blackberries, plus more for topping
- 1-2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, plus a sprig for serving
- Juice from half of a lemon
- ½ oz Código Agave Nectar
- 2 oz Lu Luna Cupreata Mezcal
- a couple dashes of Regan’s Orange Bitters
- Fever Tree Club Soda
In a mixing glass, add blackberries, rosemary, lemon juice and agave nectar. Muddle the ingredients together, squishing everything to release the juices. Add ice, along with the mezcal and orange bitters. Stir for 20 seconds and strain over ice into a mason jar. Top with club soda and garnish with fresh rosemary and blackberries.
Phantom Vehicle
By now you probably have some apple cider sitting in the fridge ready for a new spin. Here’s a fun fall take on the classic sidecar. If you’re feeling adventurous, try this warm during your next chilly evening by the fire. Or if you’re feeling lazy, simply warm up the apple cider, add cognac, and top with whipped cream for an easy treat.
- 2 oz. fresh apple cider
- 2 oz. Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac
- 1 oz. Cointreau
- 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
- Lemon peel and Griottines brandied cherries, for garnish
Add all liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker, top with ice, and shake until the shaker starts to frost and feels very cold to the touch (20 to 30 seconds). Strain into a coupe glass and top with zest and brandied cherries.
Cachaça Zombie
Trick or treat! What’s this new creature at your door? It’s cachaca, a Brazilian liquor made from distilled sugarcane juice. This cousin of rum is a little funky and earthy and makes for a great cocktail. But don’t worry, after a few of these you’ll be the fun kind of zombie not the brain eating kind.
- 2 oz Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça
- 1/4 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao
- 1.5 – 2 oz On the Fly Tropical Cocktail Mixer
- 1 dash Angostura or Bittercube Trinity
- Absinthe rinse (optional but recommended)
- lime wedge and mint sprig, for garnish
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Rinse an oversized whiskey tumbler with absinthe, add crushed ice, and pour in your strained cocktail. Garnish with a lime wedge and mint sprig.
Spooky Sangria
You probably still have some apple cider; we all make the same mistakes every fall, nobody is perfect. So here’s a great recipe to share with your ghoul and goblin friends at your haunted gatherings. Use up that cider and that dusty bottle of pinot grigio you never got to in the summer, and bring the shenanigans to the party!
- 1 bottle pinot grigio
- 2.5 cups apple cider
- 1.5 cup Schweppes Club Soda
- .75 cup Velvet Falernum liqueur
- 3 honey crisp apples chopped
- 3 pears chopped
Combine all ingredients in a punch bowl, stir, and chill for one hour before serving.
Classes through WSET go beyond our public classes; think of these classes as a larger picture look at wine around the world, as opposed to the more focused, deep-diving topics that we cover in our public classes. Certification through WSET not only helps to inform you as a beverage consumer in what you like and why, but it also leads to enjoyment of libations on a more thoughtful level. 
WSET Level 1 is like baby step into the world of wine: think of this level as the elementary school level of wine; it’s the least intimidating of the four levels, and a great way to get the basics if you have really minimal knowledge around wine. Our first ever WSET Level 1 course is scheduled for January 28, 2023, and entails just one 6-hour in-person course, with the exam being completed at the end of the day. 
You can treat WSET Level 2 like high school – there’s more content to learn here, but it’s still not too intense of a course. You’ll expand more on what wines from certain regions taste like and begin diving into grape growing methods. You’ll also begin to taste wines deductively at this level, meaning tasting wines for their core flavors, aromas, and mouthfeel. WSET Level 2 is scheduled as a 3-day course, with class held once per week beginning February 5, 2023. 
At Level 3, you begin to explore wine at a more “college” level. Why do wines taste a certain way, what wine growing and production methods are used where and why, and so forth. At this level, the exam consists of multiple choice, essay questions, as well as a blind of two wines; it’s geared more towards those with a comfortable background in wine or those who have completed level 2. Our Level 3 course will be held once a week, from March 13th through May 29th of 2023. 
by Tom
By Bennett
Jason’s dreams for owning a brewery began like many, as an avid homebrewer whose carboys of fermenting beer began to take up too much space. Landing a cellarman job in Montana led to assistant brewing, more brewing education, and eventually another cellarman role at Pelican Pub and Brewery in Oregon, where he “got his wings” and worked his way up to head brewer (see what I did there). After gaining this experience, the couple decided to head back to the Midwest to start their dream brewery. Steel toe boots, Jason’s preferred footwear for work, became the name, illustrative of the hard work ethic required for brewing great beer.
With “big dreams of staying small”, Steel Toe has only gradually increased their distribution over the years. They have kept their stable of beers small, focusing mostly on hop-driven pale ales with a discernible Pacific Northwest influence. You won’t see them brewing the latest smoothie-style sour, milkshake IPA or pastry stout. Heck, it wasn’t until last month that they “finally” released a hazy IPA. A few modern craft beer enthusiasts might be irritated by the purposeful absence of these experimental styles on their tap list. Steel Toe doesn’t bother with fads. Contrarily, they have preserved a reverence for beer styles that are oft-ignored in today’s craft market, such as Hefeweizen, Scotch Ale, Black IPA, and Imperial Red Ale. This conviction for well-made traditional craft styles is the thing I most admire about Steel Toe.
Douglas Cascadian Dark Ale – $13.99/6pk Can
Let me just start by saying that if you haven’t visited the museum before, you are truly missing out. The building was built in a Spanish Colonial-Revival style, with impressive arches inside and out, Romanesque windows, and stone carvings throughout the space. This dramatic architectural design can be explained by the fact that in a previous life, the building housed a church. Even with the soaring ceilings, though, the space makes for a surprisingly warm and cozy environment. 
Our first of the series will focus on Dr. Konstantin Frank, one of the most influential figures in North American wine. Russian-born and Ukraine-raised, Frank helped to shape the grapes and styles of Finger Lakes wines. If you’re looking to try domestic wines that are produced in a more European style, this class will be an eye opener for you! We’ll taste a flight of Finger Lakes wines while discovering the many ways his legacy impacted the domestic wine industry, what in the heck trockenbeerenauslese means, and why you should be drinking more East Coast wines, all while basking in the Museum’s gorgeous art collections. 
For our second class of the series, we’ll spotlight André Tchelistcheff — AKA “The Winemaker’s Winemaker.” This Russian-born winemaker helped to shape the wines of California and Washington as we know them today. Through his legacy of peer-mentorship as well as his development of some of today’s most widely used winemaking techniques, Tchelistcheff played a key role in establishing North America on the wine map. We’ll guide you through a variety of wineries that his influence directly touched, and learn how his role in the 1973 Judgement of Paris helped to positively change the trajectory of domestic wine.
The third class of the series focuses on one of the most ancient winemaking regions in the world: Georgia. After perusing the museum with a welcome beverage in hand, you’ll taste through a flight of Georgian wines in the main exhibition of the museum. We’ll explain how their generational wine techniques persevered through the Soviet era, what a Qvevri is (and how many people can fit inside the largest ones), and why fermenting wine underground leads to some of the most complex and interesting wines. 
We’re capping off the series with a bang! Champagne and Caviar. Need we say more? We’re taking more of an experiential approach for the final installment of our partnership with TMORA, leading you through a luxurious tasting experience of what is perhaps the world’s best food and wine pairing. Your ticket will get you samples of six of our favorite champagnes, accompanying small bites, and, of course, caviar (roughly 15g caviar for each guest). As you taste, you’ll learn about the history and production process of Champagne, and discover why it is such a magical pairing to this iconic delicacy. 
By Bill
A balanced, malt driven beer very similar to a Vienna Lager. Biscuit-like maltiness and flavor with just a hint of hop bitterness to keep the malt in check. It’s a classic style. It’s my favorite of all the seasonal beers styles that get released each year. There’s no better beer to enjoy outside while the leaves are changing color.
Last on Lager takeover, we have the triumphant return of Junkyard’s Grandpa Bill’s Pils
Our record-breaking eleventh Elijah Craig Single Barrel has arrived! We were lucky enough to pick out our second cask strength barrel of the year. We love to hand select single barrels whenever we get the chance, bringing the highest quality whiskey exclusively to our customers. This eight year old single barrel is filled with dark fruits of raspberry and cherry with a hearty oak back bone. It is an intense 126.7 proof uncut from the barrel and could use and ice cube or a few drops of water for it to open up. We pick out a few dozen single barrels of bourbon and rye a year, hand selecting the best we can find. Upcoming barrels include Ezra Brooks 120 Proof Bourbon, Rebel 120 Proof Wheated Bourbon, Rittenhouse Rye, Stellum Bourbon and Rye, Four Roses, and a Maker’s Mark Private selection. 
by Melissa
