Barrel Aged Cocktails: Clyde Common

barrel aged Negroni (I couldn’t resist taking a few sips before grabbing this photo.)

On my most recent trip to PDX, I, as a creature of habit, made my first stop at Clyde Common, which is very conveniently located on the first floor of the Ace Hotel- my crashpad in town. I bellied up to the bar with every intention of ordering one of Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s reknown barrel aged cocktails. Earlier in the day, I read all about Jeff’s experiments in Food+Wine’s Go List (courtesy of Jenny Adams), and well, they sounded too good to not try. 

So, I perched myself at the end of that consistently busy bar and asked Neil Koppin-one of the old pros at Clyde- for the aged Negroni. Fortunately, I got there just in time for the last few from that particular cask.  The wood certainly mellows the stark bitterness of the Campari (something I enjoy), but it also smooths out the vermouth and adds a richness and depth that I typically only find in rye based cocktails.

Having said all of that, DAMN this is a great drink.

Being the lucky girl I am, I was rewarded for draining the last of the Negroni supply by none other than Mr. Morgenthaler himself who invited me into his “office” to bottle the next cask. Curious, as always, this was an invitation I could not refuse.

Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s “Office” and “Rickhouse”

I didn’t get to witness any batching before the liquid goes into the barrel, but you can read all about that over on Jeff’s blog here. What I did get to see was the following:
 

Jeff uncorking the cask.

Me performing a little quality control. What’s not to love about the straw test?

Jeff is carefully pouring out the aged Negroni over a strainer. I was impressed with how little ended up on the table.

Then, he funnels the cocktails into much more manageable pourable bottles. Notice those blue labels? Yeah, I was in charge of those. I only get tasked with the important stuff.

I wouldn’t trust me with all of that beautiful liquid either.

And, that, my friends, is how you barrel age a Negroni. I didn’t snap a shot of Jeff filtering out all of the pieces of char that invariably float in the final product. I also don’t have the very important last step of the process documented, which is the stirring over ice. But, based on the name of the blog, I bet you guessed that the drink was stirred.