From Sunday August 25th through Wednesday August August 28th, BevFluence hosted a series of events in Baltimore designed to provide education to bartenders, sommeliers, media, craft beverage professionals, and even distillers. The sessions were a combination of seminars, forums, hands on training, and distillery tours presented by well known local and national craft beverage experts. Sunday to Tuesday the sessions were held at the Baltimore Spirits Company and Wednesday featured a tour of Sagamore Spirit.
The Speakeasy commenced with a session presented by spirits judge and personality Tracie Franklin on Spirited Whisk(e)y’s of the World and featured whiskies from Japan (Takamine Whiskey), Taiwan (Kavalan Whisky), Australia (Morris Single Malt Whisky), Denmark (Stauning Whisky), England (Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky), and France (Brenne Whisky). This was a highly educational experience introducing attendees to regions and distilleries that are not usually immediate thoughts when referring to whisky. Tracie delved into the history of each distillery, their production processes, and what make them unique in the world of whisky.
Cocktail entrepreneur, podcaster, and cocktail expert Eric Kozlik followed with a session entitled, Why Your Tasting Notes are Bullshit. In essence, to draft a quality tasting note, the author should fulfill both a goal (accuracy) and a purpose (connection to the liquid). Get to the Heart of the liquid through triangulation of the flavor and category. We will be posting snippets to get you on your way.
Tracie Franklin returned Monday afternoon to moderate a panel on Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey through the expressions of the Baltimore Spirits Company (MD), Sagamore Spirits (MD), Catoctin Creek Distilling (VA), and Dad’s Hat Rye (PA). BSC tri-founder and Head Distiller Eli Breitburg-Smith represented Maryland’s experiences, Catoctin Creek’s Regional Sales Manager Avalon Oona Haas represented Virginia, and Tracie represented Pennsylvania — although Marketing Manager Len Boris represented Dad’s Hat Rye for the remainder of the afternoon. The information presented was informative, sometimes affably combative, and tasty as we samples Rye whiskies from the four distilleries.
The first hands-on Bartender Lab followed with Chandler Tomayko discussing Cider Cocktails and a free range deep dive into the various spirits, flavors, bitters, and ciders – the later entered through our Pomme and Perry Showcase campaign. The participants started with whiskey, gin, and rum based spirits, then incorporating flavors from Amoretti and Weber Flavors before augmenting with Chinola Fresh Fruit Liqueurs, Scrappy’s Bitters and Bitter End Bitters.
Later that day local Cultivator of Cocktails Shaun Stewart and Jessie Marrero presented a hand-on session called Basic Batches: How to Batch Cocktails for more efficient operations. They provided best practices and the methodologies for front loading your cocktails and build scalable cocktails. Plus a handy website for calculating the percentages.
On Tuesday, Chandler presented a specialty of hers in Little Libations where participants created mini cocktails that provide experience in crafting cocktail flights. She explained the basic concepts why little libations matter, the arithmetic behind decreasing recipe size, and how to have fun experimenting with these concoctions.
The day ended with a free-flowing Bartender Lab where bartenders and influencers sparked their cocktail creativity spirit in the Fool Around and Find Out Time. The participants were able to take what they had learned over the last three days and apply that to the dozens upon dozens of available cocktail ingredients. This session also included a station on Norton wines from Virginia wine producers and featured an almost 30 year library of Norton wine from Horton Vineyards. These wines were also well received at an industry dinner held that night.
