[Music]
welcome friends welcome back to
cocktails after dark
um so you've been out on the googler and
you've googled how to stock your first
home bar and you've come across dozens
of articles
from
blogs and reddit posts
magazines you've stumbled across a bunch
of youtube videos all talking about how
to stock a bar and they've all sort of
come up with the same the same sort of
thing and so let's run through
what the what the wisdom of the crowd
says
you obviously have to start your first
home bar with a bottle of american
bourbon now don't get hung up on the
brands that are in front of us here
because brands globally do vary
availability of brands do vary globally
and we'll get into the flavor profiles
later so
absolutely have to have a bottle of
bourbon
that's the wisdom of the crowd
if you're gonna have a bottle of bourbon
well you need a bottle of rye whiskey
because you can't make classic cocktails
without a rye whiskey
if you're gonna go that far
you probably should have a blended
scotch whisky
because blended scotch whiskies make
great cocktails this could easily
be swapped out for a blended irish
whiskey or canadian whiskey because
those go in cocktails really well and
while if you're talking about american
bourbon and since you're at the liquor
store and you're buying bourbon
why not get one of the other bourbons
that have a different mash bill either
with a higher rye content or this one
that has weeded
gotta start with those next up you have
to have rum gotta have a rum
so you should start out with a um an
unaged white rum
be it
spanish
french rum agricole or an english rum
and then of course you should have a
dark aged rum again you could go spanish
you could go english you could go french
and because i bring up french rum
agricole
you should probably have a french rum
agriculture because the flavor is
completely different than the english
and spanish rums
now you should also have a gin
and obviously you're going to start out
with a london dry gin all we should have
a london dry gin in your cabinet and
then probably a new world gin because
again different flavor profile
let's have an old tom gin because old
time gin different flavor profile
different sweetness level and used a lot
in older classic cocktails
and then in a new world gin maybe
something that has a different spirit
base this one has a rye base which gives
a different flavor profile
of course you need
tequila
unaged tequila and an aged tequila why
stuff there you need a vodka
either a grain vodka or a potato vodka
and if you're really serious you're
going to get a cognac
and there you have your first bar that
has wiped out two months of your
paycheck
i would suggest you go a completely
different route completely different
route let me clear all of this away and
we're gonna start over and it's also a
problem because you don't just need the
base alcohol you need all of the
modifiers and those bottles add up too
okay let's start over
here we go
if you came to me and said
glenn i'm looking to start my own home
bar i would look at you and say well
what have you already got in your house
chances are you've probably got a couple
of bottles of something already on the
go in your house that you enjoy
and i would look at you very seriously
and say well what is your favorite
cocktail which one do you make over and
over again and what's the best version
of that cocktail you've ever had
and so just for argument's sake
because last week we did an old
fashioned
of the old fashions that i made here two
of them the one that i really enjoyed
had rye and this particular rye so i'd
look at you and say
buy
the brands that you saw
the bartender or your friend put into
that drink and if you already have that
brand at home then sort of expand on it
but the idea is you already know you've
got something that you like let's start
there because this rye
and the two types of bitters that were
in it is your starting point and you can
play with these flavors
and sort of dial it into exactly what
you like
then
then you can play with that cocktail by
expanding into a different type of
whiskey in this case a bourbon or a rum
change the spirit out completely and
start making an old fashioned with a rum
and see how you like that
and so
you've already varied what's in your
glass a little bit and we haven't gone
too expensive or too deep into the
expense of buying bottles
and i would suggest that when you're
looking at the brands
taste what your friends have i mean
that's a really easy way to do it you've
got a friend who's got a well-stocked
home bar just sit down one day and say
you know i'd like to try that and i'd
like to try that i'd like to try that or
go to a bar
um where you you know feel comfortable
and you can look at the back bar and you
can say to the bartender can i try a
shot of those
most bartenders will be completely open
to helping you with that julie and i
have an advantage we've been doing this
channel since 2007
and in an average month we'll go to
three or four tastings
be it wine or alcohol
where we get to sit down and have
a tasting flight that's set out for us
and we get to taste through different
things and we get to do blind tastings
and a blind tasting is an absolutely
amazing way to figure out what you like
because it takes away
what the bottle looks like it takes away
what all of the pundits have said to you
you know i'm sure you've read all of the
reddit posts where people tell you that
you're an idiot if you like brand x
but when you get right down to it in a
blindfold tasting
you may love brand x so take all of that
away and actually taste through and
don't worry about what the brands are
don't worry about what the price point
is just worry about what tickles your
taste buds and if you really like
something
stick with it
love it
don't worry what other people say to you
because it's your taste buds you have to
live with it so that's my little rant
about that
and then once you get you know two or
three bottles in the sort of the same
area and you've branched out a little
bit into rum that's where you start to
move into what other cocktails can you
make with these three things and you
have to start buying those adjunct
ingredients
to add to your bar
so we have here on the counter are you
know brown spirits we've got some rye
and some rum this could easily be vodka
or gin and this next little bit would
almost be kind of the same
we've got you know your basic bitters
the angostura this is the one that you
know predates so many of the cocktails
that are being made today this is like
the granddaddy of bitters and there's so
many out there and these are relatively
inexpensive this is something that is
easy to play with and get out with some
orange bitters or some
some different bitters from different
companies i've got a giant box of
bitters we could talk about bitters
for hours probably
if this was sort of my base the next
thing i'd do
would be vermouth
a white vermouth and a red vermouth
these
start a countdown clock as soon as you
open them
they're a fortified wine and the wine
breaks down over time the taste shifts
and changes
so this is something that i always try
to buy in the smallest bottle possible
and i keep it in the fridge tightly
capped
within the first couple of months the
flavor doesn't change too much
between two and six months the flavor
will change greatly depending on how you
handle them and after the six month
period you have to question why it's
still in your fridge
you
there is a string of thought out there
that if you pour it into a smaller and
smaller bottle
you will lessen the amount of oxygen and
the amount of oxidization that happens
i've spoken to a few
a few sommeliers about that
and they have said that's not really a
good plan because as you pour it from
bottle to bottle
you're glugging it a little bit and it's
running inside and you're oxygenating it
and you're actually doing more harm than
good by pouring it into a small bottle
so
buy the vermouth that you like again go
to a bar and taste through vermouth's go
to your friend's house and taste through
vermouth and also know that
not every vermouth is perfect for every
cocktail that a vermouth that you love
in one cocktail you're going to hate in
another one that the balance is going to
be wrong and that you could spend a
lifetime
buying different vermouths i've probably
got a dozen different vermouths over
there unopened ready to go into
cocktails
the next one is orange liqueur
this again is a broad category
often called curacao
and
can be made with a bunch of different
base spirits both of these in front of
me are made with a brandy cognac type
based spirit you can also have a neutral
grain spirit
some of them actually are made with
oranges from the island of curacao most
of them are not they're made with bitter
oranges from the south of spain
there's only one brand that's actually
made on the island of curacao again this
is a this is a category that we could
talk about for hours but basically what
you have to know is that
the bitterness between brands is
completely different the flavor profile
between brands is completely different
the sugar level or the perceived
sweetness is different between brands
not every brand is going to work in
every cocktail but what you have to do
is find one that works for you in most
applications and for me that is these
two
they work
well in most cocktails so i kind of
stick with those in my bar
if you're going to go with these two um
you know a rye and a bourbon you're
probably at some point want to make a
sazerac and that's where this comes in
this is absinthe
again
you're going to use a very tiny amount
of absinthe in each one this bottle of
absinthe will
probably do me the rest of my life even
with
doing a cocktail show and cocktail
tastings i'm probably never going to use
all of this in fact um
i keep absent in a tiny little dropper
bottle
um because you only use a few drops in
each one i never pull this out except to
refill this bottle
just a very small amount
now if you look at me and say well i
don't like the whiskey category i don't
like bourbon i don't like any of those
things
what am i going to do so
easy easy peasy
maybe you like gin
most of these
most of these adjuncts work really well
with gin except maybe the absinthe i
would say forget the absinthe if you're
a gin drinker
i would drop this in saint germain
this stuff's like ketchup this stuff is
like ketchup goes in almost every
cocktail
brightens them up and makes them taste
fantastic so i would put the saint
germain in and then when you look at
gins i mean there's the whole category
of london dry gin but there are new
world gins
like the hendrix and like a whole bunch
of other ones that have a slightly
different flavor profile
there are also gins this one is made
with rye and it is my favorite gin
because it has that spicy note that
jumps out
and really i think makes a great
cocktail
you get into old tom gins and they're
very sweet
or they can be very sweet or your
perceived sweetness level is much higher
and these are used in a lot of
really old cocktails classic cocktails
and you might not want to go down this
route but if you're exploring gin
a small bottle of of an old tom gin
would really help you along in your
exploration of cocktails
that's my favorite absolutely my
favorite now if you are a vodka drinker
and you already have a bottle of one of
the really big
national international brands of vodka
i would say to you supplement your bar
with a potato vodka
completely different flavor profile and
mouth feel profile in a potato vodka
than one of the all grain vodkas or a
wheat vodka pretty much a wheat vodka
that you're going to find out there in
the big international brands
and this one
is a both of these brands are from local
to us in toronto
this one
again is made with rye and it is one of
my favorite vodkas because it actually
brings a great flavor to the cocktail a
spicy flavor to the cocktail so if
you're someone who's into martinis and
into really tasting some of the other
flavors rather than the actual alcohol
this could be your entrance into trying
different things and if you're into
vodkas and you're into trying different
vodkas don't go with vodkas even if
they're from different brands if they
have the same mash bill if they have the
same mash build there's a chance that
the vodka in each bottle came from the
same giant distillery in the american
midwest that pumps out grain alcohol
in giant tanker cars and individual
distilleries
buy it and finish it into vodka put it
into a bottle and make this great
marketing message that goes along with
it
try
different
mash bills so something that's made with
rye or something that's made with
potatoes this company also makes one
with a sweet potato
again a different flavor profile still a
vodka
but it tastes amazing
now if at the beginning you said to me
rye was your jam
i would then also suggest maybe that you
you move into tequila
and try either a clear or silver blanco
tequila make sure that it's 100 agave
there is a lot of
there's a lot of ways to tell what's in
these bottles there's a
nom on the back a number
and you'll see it on the back and you
can search that number online
and
tequila is so tightly controlled you
search that number online it will tell
you all of the brands
that are made in the same distillery
which makes it really easy for you to
sort of look at
if you're price conscious
to look at well if they're making you
know 20 brands in this particular
distillery what differentiates the one
that is really inexpensive from the one
that is really expensive are they that
different or is it just a marketing
thing um you know i'm i'm not saying
that they're exactly the same but
there's a chance that they're not going
to be all that different
so you can check who makes which one
very easily which is as we just talked
about in vodka not a possibility you
don't always know where that vodka is
coming from chances are it might be
coming from that giant plant in the
midwest so if you're if rye is your
thing maybe you want to try tequila
because tequila will go in a lot of the
same cocktails
i'm not helping at all am i making any
sense
this is such a broad topic and that's
why i've tried to stay away from it
because there's so many variables there
are so many variables so if you take
anything away from this video my
my talking points for this video would
be
if you know you already love a cocktail
seek out the brands that made that
favorite version and start from there um
don't worry about buying
30 different base alcohols start with
the base alcohol that you know you like
and then start exploring some of the
adjuncts or additives the things that
are going to make the rest of the
cocktail and explore those and then just
slowly circle out
and a great way to sort of expand your
reach and expand your palette and
explore what your palette likes
is to just sit down in a club find a
club
that does tastings
and taste through things it's a
fantastic way to figure out what you
like
or
just find a bar or a pub that has a
great selection that you can sit down at
and just taste through a bunch of
different things this by no means is you
know the be-all and end-all i mean
i've got so many things over there that
i'd love to tell you but this video
would just be so
long i think you have to
wash away what everyone says online
and be true to your own palate
really explore what you like
don't worry about the marketing messages
don't worry about the shape of the
bottle don't worry about the label
that's on the bottle don't worry about
what some guy on reddit says
do your own exploration and build slowly
because if you go out and spend you know
hundreds of dollars on alcohol
there's going to be some dogs in there
there's going to be some bottles that
haunt you
another great way to do it is i brought
out this
i brought out this little bottle of
bombay sapphire
if you're unsure if you like
a particular brand or if you like a
category
buy one of these little bottles
yes
the cost per ounce or the cost per
milliliter is going to be higher than if
you bought the full-size bottle
but it's going to be cheaper to buy the
tiny bottle
it's going to be
less of a waste if you don't like it
and it's not going to haunt you forever
sitting on the back of your bar as that
bottle you bought and you didn't like so
explore this way that's a that's a
really good way to start figuring out
what you like thanks for stopping by see
you again soon
you