Yo.

I'm a fan of American whiskey

Yep. That's a fact. And, this has not been a life-long experience either. In fact, it's only been in the last few years that I discovered whiskey. Before that, I'd drink some gin and even beer - but no whiskey.

Before I opened Liberty, my interest in opening a bar was more for the community aspect. That was always what was so interesting to me. Now though? There's a whole world of spirits and cocktails that is open and emerging, and there's little more interesting to me than that world.

My first real experience with American whiskey - bourbon in this case - was actually at Vessel. It was a day before they officially opened, and one of my bartenders and I happened to walk in and to the grand dismay of Jamie and Coleman and the other dude, we hung out and had a good time. Well, mostly a good time. We went out for a smoke, leaving half of my Buffalo Trace and they locked us out. Thanks, Coleman. BUT!!! I've been back 50 times since and suggest that people go all the time. Go now.

Forget the gourmets. They're boring. Spirits are far more interesting than food. Far more fulfilling. Am I overstating that? Maybe. But still...

I look forward to the guild's future. We'll be here for a while, and I am happy to continue to learn a lot from the members of the WSBG. There's so much to learn from each other, so this is an invaluable group. See y'all at the meetings.

The WSBG and the ejumacation plan.

So, a few weeks ago we had our inaugural membership party. We probaby had....oh, 85 people...maybe 100 there? After all of the hard work that all the members that the WSBG put in, we saw then the great results of all of our plans.

Next up? Our Absinthe event. Luckily, here in Washington State, we have some of America's most knowledgeable Absinthe aficionados, and we are very happy to have them lead this event. First will be Gwydion Stone, who is the creator of Absinthe Marteau, and the leader of the The Wormwood Society, which is "a non-profit educational and consumer advocacy organization focused on providing current, historically and scientifically accurate information about absinthe, helping to reform the laws impacting absinthe in the United States and encouraging the healthy enjoyment of a safe, rewarding and historically interesting beverage."

We're also incredibly lucky to have leading this discussion Paul Clarke, who's blog, Cocktail Chronicles is one of the more authoritative cocktail websites out there (bookmark that one). He's also a contributing editor for Imbibe Magazine, and apparently he and Gwydion led a great seminar on Absinthe at the Tales of the Cocktail, and they'll be reprising this seminar for us. Thanks, y'all.

This bash will happen on I believe January 24th? (Apparently there's no football that day). Zane and Anu have again crazily and incredibly graciously offered us the use of their awesome pad, so this should be a great event. We'll also be making classic and new cocktails invented for the event.

Just so you know, Absinthe Marteau will be available in Washington State any day now. It's made down in Portland at House Spirits, and the State of Washington is finding getting on it and getting Marteau for us here in Washington.

Also available pretty soon will be an Absinthe by Pacific Distillery called Absinthe Pacifique, which is damn good. Marc Bernard over at Pacific Distillery also is making a rather floral dry gin called Voyager which will be available soon in our stores here in Washington.

See y'a there?

From here on out, I'll be bloggityblogging at Alcohology. Stop on by if you like.