Kevin Liu has just made his newly published book: Craft Cocktails at Home: Offbeat Techniques, Contemporary Crowd-Pleasers, and Classics Hacked with Science available for free today through saturday (2/28-3/2/13) on Amazon in Kindle version. If you miss out on Kevin’s generous offer just buy a copy. I definitely went physical paperback.
The book was a lot of fun to read. A few of the ideas alone are worth the regularly priced admission (particularly Orgeat constructed from commercial store-bought almond milk and sugar).
A great strength of the book is the amazing amount of collaboration Kevin organized. Besides Kevin’s own insights, recipes, techniques, and explanations of the underlying science are brought together from all over the bartending world.
Kevin seems to have a target audience of scientists and engineers but anyone curious with a sturdy high school education will have no trouble with the scientific explanations.
Yours truly did have a few recipes in the book. Kevin selected one of my pina coladas from pressure cooked “caramelized” coconut cream as well as my Roasty-Toasty which is a walnut oil rendition of Pip Hanson’s amazing Olivetto from Marvel Bar in Minneapolis, Mn.
The ideas i’m most looking forward to trying are Kevin’s idea of hacking a fridge or freezer with a PID to produce clear ice or Pip Hanson’s charcoal treated cocktail technique.
A great addition to any cocktail library. Cheers!