Commoner

Three Christmas Season Gin Cocktails

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +1100

Inspired by the aptly named Juniperlooza in Melbourne last month, we thought we would put together some stand-out recipes for Christmas party cocktails with a Gin base. Gin is one of the most versatile cocktail bases as it allows you to create a wide range of masculine and feminine cocktails for all kinds of occasions.

The Negroni

VIA Four Pillars Gin

The Negroni is a tribute to the original definition of a cocktail: spirit, sweet, sour and bitter, the ultimate balance of flavours to stimulate all senses and quench all thirsts.

INGREDIENTS:

30mL Four Pillars Spiced Negroni Gin
30mL Campari
30mL red vermouth
Orange segment

METHOD:

Layer ingredients over ice in a short glass
Squeeze in a twist of orange
Mix with a tall spoon

For a Contessa, swap out the Campari for Aperol to create a lighter, brighter version of this classic cocktail.

Don't be afraid to experiment with ratios and garnishes to tailor this versatile drink to your own tastes.

Floradora

VIA West Winds Gin

This forgotten classic was named after a Broadway musical but in our eyes is a really easy party starter.

We love this drink as you can’t mess it up but if 10 friends front up for a cheeky backyard session it’s a perfect sipper you can make real quick.

INGREDIENTS:

45ml The West Winds Gin The Sabre
15ml Cassis
15ml lime juice

METHOD:

Build over ice in a highball and top with dry ginger ale.

The Ink Gin Martini

Ink Gin is produced in small batches in the Northern Rivers of NSW. It's beautiful blue hue comes from an exotic flowering legume with colour changing properties. This natural floral infusion gives Ink Gin a remarkable look, most elegantly displayed in a signature Ink & Tonic, which changes colour from deep blue to blush pink when mixed.

Via Cocktails and Bars

INGREDIENTS:

60 ml Ink Gin
10 ml Maidenii Dry Vermouth
Glass: chilled Martini glass
Garnish: lavender

METHOD:

Chill the Martini glass in the freezer for at least 10 minutes. In a mixing glass filled with ice, add the gin and vermouth and stir well until very chilled. Strain the drink into the chilled glass and garnish with lavender.

If you need some ideas for excellent local gins, try West Winds, Four Pillars, Archie Rose, Ink Gin or Applewood. A local bottle of Gin also makes an excellent christmas gift!

Office Christmas Party Bars

Thu, 26 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +1100

We are still taking bookings for bar service and setup for all kinds of office Christmas parties and silly season functions, including NYE and private parties. We can provide a package for bar service staff, savoury and sweet food platters, cocktail service, craft beers and speciality wines. Some of our package options are below:

1. BASE PACKAGE

WINE

Hardys – The Riddle Sauvignon Blanc, SE Australia
Hardys – The Riddle Shiraz Cabernet, SE Australia

SPARKLING

Hardys – The Riddle Sparkling Brut, SE Australia

BEER

Carlton Draught

Cascade Premium Light

SOFT DRINK

Coca Cola, Coke Zero, Sprite, Lift and Water

ADD ONS: basic spirit package, cocktail on arrival or Frozen Cocktail Machine.

2. PREMIUM PACKAGE

WINE

Scotchmans Hill - The Hill Sauvignon Blanc, Adelaide Hills / Marlborough NZ

Scotchmans Hill – The Hill Shiraz Cabernet, Adelaide SA

SPARKLING

Scotchmans Hill - The Hill Cuvee Brut N.V

BEER

Choice of Imported beer – Becks / Stella / Asahi / Heineken

Carlton Draught

Cascade Premium Light

SOFT DRINK

Coca Cola, Coke Zero, Sprite, Lift and Water

ADD ONS: basic spirit package, cocktail on arrival or Frozen Cocktail Machine.

3. TAILORED PACKAGE

Design your own Beverage package from a Cocktail on arrival to a complete Spirit and Cocktail Bar. We can tailor a package to suit your needs with professional staff and customized drinks – design your own Cocktail or add in a Frozen Cocktail machine.

We can supply a full range of Wines, Spirits and Beers. Our experienced staff can discuss your requirements and create a beverage list that suits your individual function.

4. PLATTER PACKAGES

SAVOURY

Traditional house made sausage rolls, house relish
Miniature ciabatta roll, chicken , lemon mayo, spring onion
Skewered prawn, garlic oil, lemon, parsley
Moroccan lamb puff, pine nuts, coriander
2 ½ bite size beef pies, hp sauce
Fragrant butter chicken samosa, tomato relish
Salt n’ pepper calamari, spiced salad, aioli
Vietnamese spiring rolls, sweet chilli lime dressing
Curried potato, pea samosa, mint yoghurt
Sweet corn, roasted pepper empanada, paprika aioli
Fried chicken wonton, chilli, coriander, lemongrass

SWEET

Meyer lemon tart
Callebaut double chocolate brownie
Walnut maple tart, sugar dust
Bombolinos, vanilla custard
Passionfruit curd tart
Mini chocolate eclair

All beverage packages include Bar Infrastructure, Service Staff, Glassware, Ice, Ice Tubs and all relative beverage equipment.

We can tailor a package for you based on your event duration, indicated budget range and your own style requirements. Get in touch with us today for more information on (03) 9689 0002 or send a quote request via our form.

Profile: Local Craft Brewery Two Birds Brewing

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 10:00:00 +1100

Img via: Seasons online

For a long time in Australia, beer came from a couple of sources, monolithic beer companies whose innovations pretty much extended to light and mid-strength varieties. Thankfully, the micro brewing revolution that took off in the US made its way to our shores, and we’re now awash in world-class boutique beers of our own.

At the forefront of Melbourne’s craft beer revolution are Two Birds. Two Birds are, quite literally, two women, old friends Jayne Lewis and Danielle Allen. Two Birds is Australia’s first female owned brewing company, but it’s the quality of the Birds’ brews that really sets them apart.

 Two Birds’ brewing philosophy is refreshingly straightforward: Allen and Lewis make beers they like to drink, brews that are clean and interesting while remaining approachable. Head brewer Jayne Lewis started out making wine in her native WA, before working on ciders with the fastidious team at Little Creatures, and then finishing up her decade-long brewing education at Matilda Bay and Mountain Goat.

The duo’s simple approach has served them well: since their inception, Two Birds has become one of the most popular craft beer brands in the country, and particularly in their adopted hometown of Melbourne.

Lewis and Allen met growing up in Perth, but it wasn’t until years later, in 2010, that they hatched a plan to start their own boutique beer operation. The inspiration came after a trip to the US, where they took in the west coast’s thriving craft beer scene. Six months later, they’d quit their full time jobs, and Two Birds was born. In 2011, Two Birds put out their first beer, the excellent Golden Ale, following up with the Sunset Ale, to enthusiastic responses from boutique beer nuts and regular drinkers alike.

In the founding years, Lewis and Allen moved around, using other people’s equipment to make their brews. Eventually, they found a home in Spotswood in Melbourne’s west, turning a former sheet metal factory (appropriately enough, the factory used to turn out beer can–making machinery) into a brewery and tasting room, known as The Nest. The Nest now includes a bar and an inventive beer-accompanying menu by chef Matt Beard, ex Park Lane Hotel London and One O One in Knightsbridge and Maha in Melbourne.

Two Birds now put out four main brews, in addition to a few co-productions and more limited lines. (You should try them all.)

Golden Ale

Launched back in 2011, The Golden Ale is the first Two Birds creation, and pretty much typifies Lewis’ brewing ethos of "balance and approachability”. It’s an easy drinking craft ale with wide appeal, combining two kinds of hops, Summer and Motueka, which give this honeyed ale its spice and fruitiness.

Sunset Ale

The second Birds release, the red Sunset Ale is a full flavoured, malty affair, made with a combination of malts (pale, wheat and Crystal). The Sunset is round and rich with a tropical twist typical of the Birds’ beers, and manages the neat trick, like the Bantam, of being full-bodied without the usual attendant alcohol, weighing in at a very reasonable 4.6%.

Taco Beer

The Taco started as an experimental brew, but soon proved popular enough to become a permanent part of the Two Birds line, picking up a couple of awards on the way. The Taco is a seriously refreshing beer, getting its distinctive zesty, dry finish from flaked corn, Amarillo hops, coriander leaf and lime peel, the kind of interesting, easy drinking beer that belies the work that goes into it (Lewis says the Taco is the most labour intensive to make).

Bantam IPA

Weighing in at 4.7%, Two Birds’ Indian Pale Ale is lighter than your regular IPA, which isn’t to say it’s lightweight: the Bantam is a balanced brew that’s full of character, exquisitely smooth with a fruity kick.

The Nest is located at 136 Hall Street, Spotswood, and is open Friday to Sunday. Two Birds run tours of The Nest each weekend, which include tasting of all the beers on tap (tours need to be booked in advance)

If you’d like some distinctive Australian craft beers at your next event or party get in touch.

Our Top Three Victorian Whisky Distillers

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +1000

It’s hard to imagine now, but whisky was once a pretty unfashionable thing. Back in the day, it was associated largely with men of a certain matured vintage; the kind of thing your uncles drank. But in recent years, coinciding with the rise of a bunch of innovative Australian (ok, mostly Tasmanian) distilleries like Lark, whiskey has become seriously fashionable, with dedicated bars, tastings and even distilling courses springing up all over. Turns out our uncles were cool all along.

Why now? For a long time, it wasn’t really legal for small operators to set up distilling operations in Australia. Distilling by small outfits was outlawed in 1901, and only overturned after some haranguing from Tassie whiskey pioneers Bill and Lyn Lark, who went on to win big at the World Whisky Awards a couple of years ago.

Since the Larks set up shop in the 1990s, Australia’s boutique whiskey distillery industry has boomed, in its own quiet way, with the country now host to 29 distilleries, many of whose whiskeys are just now starting to come into their own.

And it’s not all just happening on the Apple Isle. Victoria, and even Melbourne, now have a bunch of distilleries making some seriously good whisky. Here are three of our picks.

1. New World Whisky Distillery

Image via starward.com.au

Established in 2004, the New World Whisky Distillery found themselves a unique home in an old Qantas hangar in Melbourne’s north. In recent years, they’ve made a name for themselves with their Starward whisky, a crisp, woody number made from Australian barrels and barley. New World recently set up a pretty impressive cellar door, where you can taste some of the other fruits of their labour, like beers, gin and small run experimental offerings.

New World have also taken a smart approach to one of the challenges facing all new whisky distilleries: getting by while the first batches mature. (Good whisky won’t be hurried.) Local distilleries typically get creative, experimenting with other spirits –– gin, vodka, even moonshine –– that are quicker to get to market.

Which New World also do, but they’ve also worked hard to get their whiskeys to market sooner, without compromising on quality, while also offering something a bit different: a purchase program for their immature whisky, which is in essence a kind of high end brown-liquor investment/adoption program. If you buy in –– the minimum is one barrel, for $3000 –– once your whisky is ready, New World will ship it to your door. But you can also treat it as an investment, and sell it back to the distillery for an agreed price. The whole thing gives new meaning to the term ‘maturing investments’.

What: Malt whisky, plus beers and gin

How: Distilled in a pot still using Australian barley and aged in wine barrels

Where: Melbourne, 15 minutes from the CBD

Website: newworldwhisky.com.au

2. Timboon Distillery

Image via timboondistillery.com.au

The Timboon region, in Victoria’s west, has a long and storied history with distilling. Back in the 1890s, when it was very much illegal to distill, Timboon legend Tom Delaney was the region’s most successful and notorious distiller, at one point pumping out 100 gallons a week. Tom called his blend ‘Mountain Dew’, and locals approved: one called it ‘smooth as new milk’. Eventually the authorities caught up with Tom Delaney, but bottles kept turning up, and a proud local tradition was established.

The owners of the modern Timboon Distillery take up where Tom left off, creating distinctive whiskeys that combine the smoothness of old with the exacting standards of millennial whisky production. According to noted whisky reviewer Angelo Capuano, of Malt Mileage, Timboon’s whisky is still ‘as smooth as new milk but with some ferocity and fire,’ reminding him of bushranger “Mad Dog” Morgan.

If that’s not enough to pique your interest, the rustic distillery offers tastings, a pretty serious restaurant and a chance to take a peep at some distilling in action.

What: Single malt whiskeys, plus vodka, schnapps and liqueurs

How: Distilled in a pot still, with malted barley as the only grain ingredient

Where: Timboon, 2.5 hours west of Melbourne

Website: timboondistillery.com.au

3. Bakery Hill

image via singlema.lt

Bakery Hill Distillery, in Melbourne’s east, was founded in 1999 by ex-biochemist David Baker. As you’d expect, Baker’s single malts are made to exacting standards, using only malted barley, yeast and water, and maturing in single casks. Bakery Hill is all about the taste, and Baker notably doesn’t use any of the common methods, like chill-filtering and caramel, to make their whiskeys look more whiskey-like. (Caramel dulls the taste, Baker says).

Bakery Hill’s single malts are truly distinctive Australian whiskeys, complex and rich and peaty.

The distillery’s 2009 Peated Cask Strength scored a 92.5 in Jim Murray’s semi-legendary Whisky Bible. ‘Virtually every phase of this malt works fabulously,’ Murray wrote, calling it ‘a truly wonderful piece of distilling and maturation.’

Befitting Baker’s simple, exacting operation, Bakery Hill’s distillery isn’t a tourist operation. It’s just a place where they make darned good single malts. You can buy Baker’s drops in most good Australian whiskey shops.

What: Peated single malt whiskeys

How: Made in a copper pot still, aged with American Oak (ex Bourbon) and French Oak barrels

Where: Bayswater, 35 mins east of Melbourne

Website: bakeryhilldistillery.com.au

If you’d like some distinctive Australian whiskeys at your next event, or a fine range of liquors of any kind, get in touch.

Abbey Road Institute Launch Party Bar

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 10:00:00 +1000

Abbey Road Studio was established in 1931 as the world’s first purpose-built recording studio. The studio was renowned in the ‘60s for innovative recording techniques adopted by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Hollies, Badfinger, and many others.

Abbey Road Institute is a new education initiative from the world famous Abbey Road Studios and they recently launched their world-renowned institute in Melbourne! We worked with Abbey Road Institute at their launch to serve up some tasty mixed drinks and tequila cocktails throughout the event.

Here are some photos of the awesome venue, bar and launch party on the night.

Outside view of Abbey Road Institute, Sturt St, Southbank.

Inside the studio

Launch party DJ's!

Tequila cocktails

Our bar setup on the night

Our lovely bar staff

The launch crowd

Instgram pic of our Old Fashioned cocktail by Ros O'Gorman

World Class Cocktail Week is now on

Wed, 27 May 2015 10:00:00 +1000

This week (25 - 31st May) is officially known as “Word Class cocktail week” and with some great events planned across Melbourne and Sydney including cocktail degustation, whiskey jam and bloody mary brunches, we are sure you will be able to find something to suit your needs.

In the spirit of the cooler weather and World Class Cocktail week, here is one of our favourite winter cocktails to try at home. It is super easy to put together and all you need is a good cocktail shaker.

Chamomile Martini

50ml Tanqueray No. Ten gin

25ml Chamomile Tea

15ml Honey

25ml Fresh pink grapefruit juice

Directions

Add all ingredients into a cocktail shaker and use your muscles to shake. Double strain into a frozen martini glass and garnish with Chamomile flower or something floral.

Cocktail & image by Tanqueray

World Class Cocktail week events are only on until this weekend! See you there.

Cocktail Inspiration

Tue, 14 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +1000

Looking for some cocktail ideas for your next event? These are some of our favourite recipe ideas from our Cocktail Inspiration board on Pinterest.

Coco & Kelley's Spiced Pear Flip

Honey Thyme Lemonade with Sugared Berries

Cardamon Moscow Mule

Apple Mojito from Chasing Delicious

A Beautiful Mess' Gind + Grapefruit

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Beer Bar Inspiration

Fri, 06 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +1100

Image credit: Alexis Wyatt via Pinterest.

We love looking for inspirational party ideas and new event bar setups on Pinterest. Here are a few of our favourites so far.

Rustic beer bar at an outdoor wedding. Source Pinterest.

Some fancy hardware. Source Pinterest.

Another wedding self-service beer bar. Source Pinterest.

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Laneway 2015 Q&A

Fri, 06 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +1100

Main image: Boudist

What do Drinks Catering do at Laneway Festival Melbourne?

We have a blast at Laneway Melbourne every year. Apart from that we set up and manage the cash bars and onsite beverage service throughout the event.

Do you also manage the Pretty Important Person Bars?

We do run the the Pretty Important Person bar which is a much better name than VIP don't you think?. This year we created a much loved drink called "The Rogers Cocktail" made by mixing Smirnoff Vodka, fresh lime, passionfruit, falernum bitters and ginger beer! The Falernum Bitters add flavours of almond, and clove to combine with the passionfruit to create the perfect tropical summer refresher.

Lettering & image by Carla Hackett

Who were this years alcohol sponsors?

This year we were working with Jamesons / Havana Club / Bulmers / cerveza aguila / Melbourne Bitter. You can see some of their branded bar setups below.