Author: natebrown

October ’19 – Imbibe https://imbibe.com/news/sussing-out-sustainability/ From recyclable glue to wind turbines, some ground-breaking businesses are committed to reducing the drinks industry’s expensive carbon footprints and building a greener future. Imbibe and WSET teamed up to discuss how the pioneers of this new, sustainable attitude, do their bit for the environment

October ’19 – Master of Malt I don’t know about you, but hospitality as a career was never something offered to me at school. Which, with hindsight, seems strange in a country of drinkers. According to our betters, we could be anything we wanted, so long as it was a police officer, teacher, lawyer, tradesperson,…

October ’19 – Master of Malt Stepping into the bar of this St. James hotel feels like stepping back in time. Not way back, not like centuries. More like decades. It has a bit of ‘50s feel at best. ‘80s at its worst. The carpet is so plush one does not walk as much as…

September ’19 – Master of Malt Walking into a bar and trying to choose what to drink has become a game of chance. Menus are caught between the esoteric and the boring. Back bar shelves are at the point of collapse with every new gin and third-party-sourced rum. The tyranny of choice is palpable.

September ’19 – Master of Malt “Excuse me, but I ordered a Daiquiri. This is not Daiquiri”“Uh yeah, I believe it is.”“It’s not.”“But… it is. I made it. Rum, lime, sugar. Bish bash bosh.”“No. It isn’t. Trust me, I know.”“I can assure you…”“Have you ever been to Dylan’s. Do you know Sergio there? He’s the…

August ’19 – Master of Malt Here’s a classical depiction of Hell. Numerous descending circles, each floor a deepening depiction of depravity and retribution, hot pokers and all that jazz. However, at the bottom is no lake of fire, no burning pits. Instead, the devil is a three-headed monster encased in ice, frozen and incapacitated. 

August ’19 – Master of Malt Not so long ago I attended an event in Shoreditch. It was a snazzy affair in terms of organisation. Five sets of bartenders from all over the world were shaking up different interpretations of a similar brief, and it was fascinating.  Each team produced widely different end products: some thought-provoking,…

July ’19 – Master of Malt Some two and a half years after the release of the whiskey, Diageo launched the Roe & Co distillery in the Liberties area of the city. The distillery is the fourth whiskey producer to open in the area, further adding to the rebirth of the distilling heritage of Dublin 8. In…

July ’19 – Master of Malt Terroir is like quantum mechanics. Nobody can fully understand or explain it, though we are all aware of its existence. And much like the refusal of a quantum particle to be independently measured, as soon as I hear the word terroir in spirits, I know it isn’t at play….

July ’19 – Imbibe What a time to be alive! We’re blessed with an increasing number of wild and wonderful new products every week, each one clamouring for the bartender’s attention. We’re inundated with category-denying concoctions, higher-proof expressions, no-abv re-imaginings, new stuff from old guys, old stuff from new guys (bizarrely) and the rest…