12 Bottle Bar

1 cube Sugar (Demerara recommended)
Juice of 0.25 Lemon
1 tsp Grenadine
1 piece Orange Peel
2 oz Rye Whiskey

Add sugar cube to mixing glass
Squeeze in lemon juice and add grenadine
Muddle sugar, juice, and grenadine together
Twist the orange peel over the mixing glass and add peel along with the rye
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass

Featured Glassware: New Cottage Amber by Villeroy & Boch

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Sometimes, it ain’t easy being an American.  If we think we have it bad now, let’s rewind the clock a bit to 1930, when the twin specters of the Great Depression and Prohibition gripped the country.  During World War I, the federal government had begun programs to guarantee Midwestern farmers high prices for crops and livestock.  In order to meet the demands, farmers heavily leveraged themselves to buy more land and equipment, but when the government ended its guarantees in 1920, prices and land values plummeted and the farmers were left with large surpluses and even larger debt.  As the dominoes began to fall, banks closed (in Iowa, 167 banks closed in 1920, while 505 closed in 1921) and people suddenly found themselves over-mortgaged, penniless, and unable to sell their goods. Read More…

a 12 Bottle Bar original

1 12 oz Bottle Lager
1 oz Sirop de Citron
0.5 tsp Absinthe
Lemon Wedge

Add all ingredients (as cold as possible) to an iced tumbler
Stir gently to combine
Garnish with a lemon wedge

Featured Glassware:  Octavie Tumbler by Villeroy & Boch

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When life gives you lemons, as the old saying goes, you make lemonade.  Unless you live at Casa 12 Bottle Bar, in which case you make half a gallon of sirop de citron.  Straight off the lad’s birthday party and heading into the preparation for our man Lars’ 40^th (a cocktail-centric bash, of course), we had a need for a good deal of what has become one of our favorite syrups to keep on hand – but not so great a need that we didn’t sit there, staring into the yellow abyss, wondering what else we could conjure out of that tart goodness.  Given that the Super Bowl is just around the corner – and that sirop de citron takes three days to make – we figured we’d kick off the week by taking the official beverage of hard-working, broad-shouldered football fans everywhere – beer – and French it up a bit.  Good idea, right? Read More…

1.75 oz Bacon-infused Rye
0.25 oz Maple Syrup (Grade B)
10 oz Lager

Combine Rye and maple syrup in a 2 oz shot glass.
Serve shot alongside glass of lager or drop in, depth- charge style

For Bacon-infused Rye
8 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1.5 oz Strained, Liquid Bacon Fat

Cook enough bacon to render a couple ounces of fat
Strain liquid fat through a fine sieve to remove solids
Allow to cool, then add 1.5 oz liquid to Rye
Let mixture sit at room temperature for a day
Place mixture in freezer for a few hours until fat has solidified into a cap
Remove fat cap and strain Rye again to remove any additional fat particles
If the bacon taste isn’t pronounced enough, repeat process

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6 oz Lager
4 oz Thai Chelada Mix (below)
1 oz Lime Juice
Handful of Basil

Rim outside of a pint glass or mixing glass with a cut lime, then dip in salt (we like kosher) to coat
Muddle basil in glass
Add ice, then the mix, lime juice, and lager.  Stir

For Thai Chelada Mix
4 oz Tomato Juice
1.5 tsp Thai Fish Sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
0.25 tsp Sriracha Hot Sauce

Combine all ingredients and stir
Consider this a base recipe and adjust the sauces to taste

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