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Episode 203

Barr Hill Gin with Ryan Christiansen

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Barr Hill Gin with Ryan Christiansen

Episode 203

What’s shakin’ cocktail fans?

Welcome to Episode 203 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

Thanks for tuning into this interview episode, where we track down the best and brightest minds in the spirits and cocktail world so that we can share their secrets with you. This time around, we hang out with Master Distiller Ryan Christiansen, co-founder of Caledonia Spirits, makers of Barr Hill Gin.

Barr Hill Gin is a favorite of bartenders for its righteous blend of juniper, honey, and sustainability. In this wide-ranging and pine-scented conversation with Master Distiller Ryan Christiansen, some of the topics we discuss include:

How time spent in his father’s hardware store as a child led Ryan to appreciate taking complicated equipment apart and bringing people and communities together.
What it was like to build Caledonia Spirits from the ground-up alongside his partner and beekeeper Todd Hardy.
Why Barr Hill gin defies categorization as a London Dry, Old Tom, or New American style gin
Some thoughts on the finicky and inconsistent barrel aged gin category, and what makes Barr Hill’s Tom Cat reserve product such a stand-out example of what a barrel aged gin could (and perhaps should more often) be.
Along the way, we cover the tricky business of understanding where bees have been hanging out, some hints as to the location of the mythical “juniper extraction curve,” why “hazy Martinis” are set to be the next big cocktail craze
And much, much more.

FEATURED COCKTAIL – THE BEE’S KNEES

This Episode’s featured cocktail is The Bee’s Knees. To make it, you’ll need:

1.5 oz Barr Hill Gin
¾ oz of Lemon Juice
¾ oz Honey Syrup

Combine these ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, give them a nice, vigorous shake, then strain into your favorite stemmed cocktail glass, garnish with a lemon twist or a small lemon wheel, and enjoy.

Now, we’ve featured the Bee’s Knees before. It’s your basic gin sour with lemon as the acid and honey syrup for the sweet component. What we’d like to do here is give you a few ideas about how to riff intelligently on this cocktail at home – how to make it your own

The real key to this cocktail is keeping the sweet and sour in balance, and when we say that, we know most of you are thinking about the honey syrup and the lemon juice. But what you shouldn’t forget is the role that the botanicals in the gin play in giving your palate something to think about BESIDES the sweet honey and tart lemon juice. So as you play around with different variations on a Bee’s Knees, we’d highly recommend varying your gin based on the different outcomes you’re trying to achieve. For a classic Bee’s Knees, Barr Hill Gin is absolutely magnificent. The juniper shines through like a beam of light. But if you were to, say, split your honey syrup with a little bit of green chartreuse, for example, you might want a lighter gin as your base spirit.

Homemade Honey Syrup

Last process note here: a lot of people balk at making the Bees’ Knees cocktail at home because when they see “honey syrup,” they think there’s going to be a lot of sticky dishes and stovetop monitoring involved. But worry not. You can simply warm a bowl of water in the microwave, then stir in twice as much honey as you have water (because unlike simple syrup, honey syrup is a 2:1 sugar to water ratio). After you mix in your honey, feel free to nuke it again if you need to get it nice and hot for all that sweetness to dissolve, and you’re good to bottle it up and stick it in the fridge. All you need is a microwave, a bowl, and a spoon.

Bee’s Knees Week 2021

Finally, we’d like to put a fun Bee’s Knees event on your radar. This year, Barr Hill gin is excited to announce its 5th annual Bee’s Knees week, which will take place nationwide from 9/24 to 10/3.

The goal of Bee’s Knees Week is to plant 500,000 sq. ft.(that’s more than 10 acres!) of bee habitat across the U.S. Using the Bee’s Knees cocktail as its rallying point, this year’s initiative includes 2,000 bars, restaurants and stores participating nationwide.

But what if you’re just a humble home bartender? How do you show the bees some love?

It’s easy. All you need to do is post a photo of your favorite Bee’s Knees cocktail to social media using the hashtag #beeskneesweek and tag @barrhillgin. In return, Barr Hill will underwrite the planting of 10 sq. ft. of pollinator habitat for every photo posted. Again, keep in mind this event will take place between September 24 and Oct 3, 2021, and be sure to follow Barr Hill Gin on social media for updates and reminders.

SPIRITED AWARDS NOMINATION!

You may recall that a while back we shared that nominations were open for this year’s Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. These are like the academy awards for the cocktail community. Well, apparently some of you – a great many, in fact – must have been paying attention because we’re stunned and honored to announce that The Modern Bar Cart Podcast is a Top-10 finalist for the award called “Best Broadcast, Podcast, or Online Video Series!” You can check out the Spirited Awards playbill to learn about all the other amazing folks who are in the running for awards this year. If you’d like to join the LIVE Virtual 2021 Spirited Awards® Ceremony, it will take place on Thursday, September 23, at 4:00 PM CST. Check out the Tales of the Cocktail website for more info on how to join the fun.

This episode was made possible with editing and sound design by Samantha Reed, and gin-making and apiological insights courtesy of Barr HIll Gin Master Distiller Ryan Christiansen. This has been a Modern Bar Cart production, copyright 2021.

This episode is also brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life.

Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

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Episode 203

FEATURED COCKTAIL – THE BEE’S KNEES

Homemade Honey Syrup

Bee’s Knees Week 2021

SPIRITED AWARDS NOMINATION!

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