Today marks the 1 month lead up to one of the Baltimore area’s greatest brewery tours, the Heavy Seas Pyrates, Pigs and Pints tour! A celebration of all things pirate, bacon and some of the greatest local brew put out by the fine folks of Heavy Seas (aka Clipper City Brewery). Last year’s celebration was absolutely incredible (seriously look at the pictures, it was awesome) and this year’s promises to be more of the same …despite the fact that the tour is not on Talk Like a Pirate Day, and is instead on our current greatest day of national mourning, but whaddayagonnado. Here’s the rundown:
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I’m #justsaying, this bacon cupcake looks pretty gee dee awesome. Kudos to you, Cafe Latte’ Da!

Once you’ve broken your cherry by making some bacon-infused vodka Bloody Marys, give this one a shot.  After tasting a bacon Bloody Mary, I was inspired to create a BLT-type drink.  After a lot of trial and error, here’s what I came up with.

Now, if you haven’t made bacon vodka yet, it’s time to man up already.  It’s wicked easy – cook some bacon and add vodka.

Having done that, let’s make some BLT-inspired cocktails. For our first example, start by adding equal parts of the following: Bacon-infused vodka Hendricks gin (The “L”) – For those of you not familiar with it, Hendricks is a Scottish gin made from traditional botanicals as well as cucumber leaves and rose petals.  You WILL taste the difference. If you’re afraid of gin, this one’s a pussycat; people who hate gin love this one.  I also know that cucumber is not the same as lettuce, but who in the hell wants a drink made from lettuce? Tomato Juice A dash of celery salt and/or sea salt

BLT Cocktail

The cucumber flavor in the Hendricks is subtle when mixed with the bacon vodka and tomato juice.  I added a splash of cucumber juice  to enhance it (cucumber+blender+cheesecloth).  It’s not necessary, but it’s definitely an improvement that’s worth the whopping $0.50 and two minutes of hard labor. My favorite aspect of it is that you taste it in stages – first the cucumber, then the tomato, and finally the bacon. It’s basically a “light” version of a Bloody Mary.  This is also a deal-maker since it goes down smoother than water and is laden with alcohol. It’s like Rohypnol for the DIY-er!

Now, I love Bloody Mary’s, especially Bacon Bloody’s, even Virgin Bloody’s – but after having one, I’m ready to settle with a smoother cocktail. This next drink is something you can knock down with ease until you can’t legally drive, and it’s equally as tasty (and if you don’t want to shell out $35 for Hendricks as far as the gin is concerned, it’s a much cheaper alternative…).

BLT Smoothie

In your blender, add: One cup of diced seedless (English) cucumber, or about 4″ worth. 2.5 oz tomato juice and 2.5 oz of bacon vodka. Toss in a couple ice cubes and blend. It’s more of a smoothie than a cocktail, but delicious nonetheless. The texture of the cucumber actually enhances the flavor. To be honest, I prefer this version of the drink, but it requires too much preparation and cleanup for a guy without a wife. So if you have a wife, this drink might be for you! Cheers!

This was a joint venture between myself and Erik Brown, the bartender at the Oregon Grille. Once I learned that it was possible to create a bacon-infused vodka, I immediately thought, “That would make a bitchin’ Bloody Mary.” I finally got around to making the vodka a couple of weeks ago, and the drink had its debut today. It was a big hit. Once you make your bacon-infused vodka (refer to previous link!), the hard part is over. All you have left to do is make your mix. For his Bloody Mary mix, Erik works outside the realm of standard measurements. He adds enough of each ingredient until it tastes just right (I’ve found it’s better to make the mix to your personal taste anyway.)

You’re essentially going to combine tomato juice, prepared horseradish, Worcestershire Sauce, cracked black pepper, celery salt, Tabasco, and a little lime juice. Do feel free to go Avant Garde on the ingredients though, because you can easily balance out your mistakes. However, the mix will make or break this drink. If you don’t love the mix then start over.

To top this all off is a coated rim. It’s a combination of celery seed, Old Bay, and black pepper. To make it adhere to the glass, wipe the rim with a wedge of lime.

It’s finished off with a celery stalk and a few olives; 3 to be exact.

Cheers!

(if you’d like to read about the bacon and other foodstuffs featured at this horrifically amazing event, go here)

SO I’ve been wracking my brain over and over about what to say about the Heavy Seas Bacon and Beer Fest put on by Clipper City Brewery the other day, and I just can’t really do it justice. The event was positively magical; all you can drink Heavy Seas and Clipper City brews (which will get you bombed incredibly quickly as it turns out), bacon centric foods and frigging pirates walking and ROLLER SKATING around – it was simply the best way to spend half of a Saturday afternoon. The ability to walk around among the bottling equipment, tankards, cisterns, cooling systems and all of the other brewery equipment that comprise an otherwise industrial setting were perfectly woven into the festivities in a way that bizarrely complimented the whole thing.

That coupled with the surreality of pirates walking around and getting drunk while eating bacon, I mean …what the hell? The whole thing was incredibly well executed and I can’t wait to get back to another one of their events, regardless of the theme.

At any rate, hopefully some of these pictures can kind of do the whole thing a bit of justice.