Inventory for February 19th, 2017

Cheers old friends! This week we’ve got news from London: a 3-month pop up inspired by Alan Turing is set to open in March and the White Lyan releases its last ever menu. There’s also new bottles by Fever Tree, now available in 500 ml sizes, and Wild Turkey’s master distiller celebrates his 35th anniversary. It’s all good news this time around, isn’t that something to celebrate?! Happy Sunday!

Friends, spring isn’t that far away. We’ve got one more month until the official Spring Equinox (March 20th) and in celebration (and anticipation!) of that, we’ve turned to a old post from the Booze Nerds. They introduce two of their favorite spring-inspired cocktails (The Green Man and the fittingly named Printemps). We wouldn’t be mad at either of those. So, until the sun decides to come around and stay for good, we’ll just be sipping on these and thinking of sunnier futures. Cheers!

Alan Turing inspired Cocktail Bar to Open in London

… and the waiting list is already 7,428 people deep. Fun! The drinks business reports that the bar is set to be named The Bletchley, taking its inspiration from the World War II code breaker Alan Turing and the government facility where he helped crack German communications. Open for three months only (beginning March 17th) the bar will offer unique “coded cocktails” based on the drinker’s personality. “Alan Turing was an English computer scientist, mathematician, logician and theoretical biologist, who is best known for his work during WW2 as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. He pioneered a technique to speed up the breaking of German military codes to help the allies defeat the Nazis, shortening the war in Europe by more than two years and saving an estimated fourteen million lives”.

Fun fact: in 1952 he was prosecuted for “homosexual acts” and accepted punishment in the form of chemical castration (!!!) instead of going to prison. If this sir doesn’t deserve more than a three month bar concept named after him, then I don’t know what. The pop up bar will have a “enigma machine” (wut?) to decrypt the patron’s personality, taste, desire, and odour. The mixologist receives this code via a radio system to create a bespoke, one-off cocktail. Each individual gets the recipe to take home. The waiting list to get tickets (a prerequisite to pay the bar a visit) is already gaining in thousands and the bar’s location will only be revealed to those lucky enough to own a ticket.

Fever Tree now Available in 500ml Bottles

Catering to their customer’s demands, the British premium mixer company Fever Tree is set to launch their range in 500 ml bottles, that come with a resealable cap, this March. The bottles will be available in easy-to-carry, durable, reusable crates of eight. The Gin & Tonic trend continues to ride its high, we only expect to see more premium mixers upping their game and trying to please their customer. The bottles will remain glass-made. In the course of this introduction Fever Tree has decided to rename its Lemon Tonic into Sicilian Bitter Lemon, making it easier for Germans to understand (Bitter Lemon is a well known type of lemonade in Germany).

Wild Turkey Master Distiller Celebrates 35th Anniversary With Launch Of Master’s Keep Decades

The Bevnet reports that back in 1981, “Wild Turkey Master Distiller Eddie Russell decided to dabble in the family business a few miles from his boyhood home at the Wild Turkey Distillery”. He’s learned a lot since then and, in celebration of his 35th anniversary, Russell decided to release Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Decades, the second limited-edition Bourbon in the Master’s Keep series.

“For Master’s Keep Decades, I went all out and used some of the rarest and most precious barrels in our stocks. The final product is a whiskey with the finesse and deep character of older Bourbon, anchored by the bold, balanced, and vibrant backbone of younger bourbon. I have to say, this is a whiskey I truly love and I’ll be holding a few bottles back for my personal collection.”, so Russell. The Bourbon is made from a blend of whiskies aged 10 to 20 years and its nose of oak and caramel is said to deliver intricate notes of butterscotch, dried fruit, chocolate, and smoke with a smooth, sweet, and spicy finish.

White Lyan’s Last Hurrah

The time has come friends, to say goodbye to the current version of the White Lyan. Drinkup London has written a sort of obituary for the bar that came onto the scene in 2013, proudly proclaiming it had no need for either ice, nor citrus. Interested in what you might be able to drink from White Lyan’s last menu? There is the Beeswax Old Fashioned, made with Mr Lyan Scotch, sugar, bitters, and beeswax egg.

Or perhaps the Bone Dry Martini, made with Mr Lyan vodka and, you guessed it, bone. Try to stay awake and enjoy every last drop of the Tennessee Nitro Martini, its Sandows cold brew coffee it sure to give you a jolt. Ryan himself says: “Lots of people saw White Lyan as a “fuck you!” to the industry. It was never this. It was about a conversation we felt needed to be had. At first this was met with hostility, but thankfully it succeeded. When once people saw bottled cocktails as a cheat, they now appear in 5 star hotels and dive bars across the world. The same with sustainability, focus on ingredients, control, old-style bartending…White Lyan wasn’t fully responsible for these changes, but I’m proud it acted as a catalyst.”