Alcoholist Yet another cocktail blog.

TotC2009 notes: Mixologists and Their Toys

(Event link.)

Mostly gadgetry, but some interesting stuff, especially the Perlage/Perlini. Presented by Don Lee, Fernando Castellon, Xavier Herit, and Evan Wallace.

Don:

• 1/16th inch plexiglass laser-cut stencil
• hold the stencil over egg white/foam, spray w/ bitters in a diffuser
• thingaverse.com(?)
• muki.com
• did a quick demo, passed around samples of the stencil with the PDT logo on it (I have one)

Fernando:

• spherification
• jellifier (sodium algenate) that reacts with ____ mixed with water (50 grams)
• add Cointreau
• magnetic agitation starting slowly
• takes ~ 5 minutes to incorporate jellifier, avoid bubbles by going slowly
• add 150 grams Cointreau & gold flakes
• add calcium lactate (CA chloride leaves an aftertaste)
• 1m30s to 2m in CA bath, too long and they solidify completely
• 350 grams CA lactate? water?
• shake through a Parmesan shaker
• works w/ C’treau b/c of the sugar and low ABV, wouldn’t work with a base
• requires a PH over 4
• (They were demoing the kits that afternoon, but I didn’t make it past.)

Xavier:

• different spherification technique–larger balls–with strawberry puree in addition to booze
• sodium chloride/lactate “corrects” the pH
• using:
  • 60 grams evian
  • 1.6 (grams?) agenate
  • 1.8 (grams?) … something? (There was a bit of an accent going on here, feel free to set me straight and I’ll correct things)
  • 90 grams strawberry puree
  • do the first (magnet stirrer) stirring here, is what I think this horizontal line in my notes means
  • 100 grams Cointreau
• dispensed using a syringe, to get larger dollops

Evan Wallace (cf, Perlage)

• original product, Perlage, is made to fit any wine or champagne bottle, retails for $295, regulator attachment for a CO₂ tank is ~ $350
• after champagne has chilled in the fridge, CO₂ reaches equilibrium
• talking about three basic chemistry points:
  • equilibrium
  • how CO₂ gets into solution
  • how CO₂ gets back out of solution
• equilibrium doesn’t mean stasisis, just that as many CO₂ molecules leave solution as enter it
• to keep champagne carbonated, return the head space of the bottle to the standard pressure it was at before uncorked, 65 psi for champagne
• blow out the air with CO₂ from a tank to avoid oxydation
• can recarbonate a completely flat bottle of champagne
• So then: carbonating cocktails!
• can just do the same thing (fill the headspace with CO₂, increase the pressure)
• the same psi (65) is right for this too
• new product: Perlini
  • ~$200 when it goes on the market (Q4 2009)
  • handheld pressurizer is $100 (available now, for the home Perlage kit)
  • made out of clear Lexan (gr: kind of unnattractive: it’s just a cylinder, not shapped like a set of tins, but maybe they’ll pretty it up for release a bit)
• in addition to the tank attachment, there’s a handheld CO₂ dispenser that takes canisters (ala a siphon), each canister can charge 3 shakers, and also just happens to be 65 psi
• shake as normal for the standard reasons but also because it chills the liquid much more quickly, which vastly accelerates the dilution of the CO₂, which would take 2-3 hours with the ice just sitting there, but happens in a matter of seconds under shaking
• be careful when shaking: Evan broke the seal by accident, and had to recharge, which meant that when he was done shaking there was too much CO₂ and it bloomed out because the pressure instantly when from 65 to functionally infinite (which will happen anyway, but not and spray all over everywhere)
• Perlini was also available for play, I also missed it: make a point of remembering to hit stuff like that in the future
• a few things from Q&A…
  • the process produces carbonation in the spirit (and mixers) itself, rather than diluting the contents further, so you don’t need to alter a recipe to account for extra water to get carbonation
  • better than a siphon because the CO₂ doesn’t get knocked out of solution by spraying it out the nozzle (gr: even if that’s actually what you want some times…)
  • to further prevent dilution of the liquor, chill the ingredients first
  • “Clear alcohols are a bit more forgiving” than brown ones for carbonation (because of the relative sugar content, if I recall correctly)
  • CO₂ does add a bit of tartness to the taste, but arguably just because of that tingle of the bubbles releasing in your mouth
  • two ways CO₂ gets out of solution: molecular diffusion (when at equilibrium) or in a group as bubbles
  • bubbles form on other bubbles, so including rough ice or chunks of fruit means that the CO₂ will leave solution faster (more surfaces, more air bubbles collecting CO₂ molecules, and then floating up