The Modern Bar Cart Podcast

In this conversation with Dogfish Head Brewery founder Sam Calagione, some of the topics we discuss include: How Sam took his creativity from the writer’s workshop to the brewery, scaling Dogfish Head from the smallest commercial brewery in America to a top 20 craft brand over the course of two decades. What it means to make “off-centered ales for off centered people,” which requires us to travel back in time over 500 years to the publication of the reinheitsgebot - Bavaria’s infamous beer purity law. How Sam invented the practice of continual hopping using a vibrating football game that now resides in the Smithsonian. Why Dogfish Head’s acquisition by the Boston Beer Company was like a merging of kindred, yet complementary souls. What the future holds for Sam and his beer, including tropical fruit farming in South Florida, art and music collaborations, and much, much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this blockbuster Baijiu pairing and Chinese food smorgasbord, some of the topics we discuss with Brett Steigerwaldt and Derek Sandhaus include: The base grains, production methods, and flavor profiles of seven - count em - SEVEN different baijiu categories, including: rice aroma, light aroma, laobaigan, phoenix aroma, strong aroma, sauce aroma, and extra strong aroma. The relationship between baijiu and food, both at a basic level, and in the context of each different region and culinary tradition How different Baijiu styles “hack” the very foreign (to us) looking production method involving microbe-packed grain bricks called “Qu” and giant steamers to create flavors and aromas that are vastly different from one another. We also talk about what a phoenix smells like, how various traditional spicy and numbing ingredients affect how baijiu tastes, why food and drink exploration is an important act of cultural ambassadorship, And much, much more This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this wide-ranging conversation with Noah Rothbaum and David Wondrich, some of the topics we cover include: How Dave transitioned from English professor, to Esquire columnist, to full-fledged cocktail historian, and how that journey brought him to collaborate with Noah at The Daily Beast and on their current Oxford Companion project. The difference between writing about spirits and cocktails in the early 2000s vs. today, and how our relationship to “The Truth” (in quotes here) is different than it was during those early days of our great cocktail revival. Why long-form booze writing has (paradoxically) spawned a lot of attention and accolades in today’s age of listicles and tweet threads. And how conducting historical research is very similar to noodling for catfish. Along the way, we discuss why Beachbum Berry can’t stand the Pina Colada, where Dave hid that lump of Ambergris he’s been missing for the past several years, the merits of a good rum punch, and much, much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this fascinating conversation with Andrew Hellman of 1pt Co., some of the topics we discuss include: What an infusion IS at a technical level, and why you might consume more of them in your day-to-day life than perhaps you realize. How, with the help of his wife Anna, Andrew used his experience in finance and design to launch a new company aimed at changing the way we think about infused spirits. The painstaking design that went into One Part Company’s infusion hardware and consumable packets, from the Scandinavian aesthetics to the insanely easy infusion process. Andrew’s approach to sourcing ingredients and creating flavor accords to pair with specific cocktail formats We answer a timely listener question about scaling a homemade bitters recipe into something perhaps more commercially viable, We cover the merits of curated music playlists, the woes of sourcing lavender, what to drink with a grandma straight out of the Mad Men era of the 1950s, and much, much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

This episode is an introduction to a philosophy called "Epicureanism," a word that has become associated with those who seek out good food and drink. We begin by explaining who Epicurus was and what ideas he developed and spread throughout the Hellenistic world beginning in the 300s BCE Then we walk you through some of the important differences between Epicureanism and another philosophy called Stoicism And finally we explain why Epicureanism is a useful way to think about not only pursuing the sensory pleasures of life, but also more generally why it’s a tremendously attractive lens through which to view the strange and stressful world that we’re all experiencing in the here and now. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this well-shuffled, cleanly dealt interview with Dave Beck of Paverson Games, some of the topics we discuss include: How a trip to Scotland sparked the idea for a game that would challenge players to distill, age, and sell their own spirits...all thanks to an inheritance from a long-lost relative. Why Distilled is considered a “medium weight, Euro-style game, and what it looks like to make booze using cards, tokens, and distiller avatars. How the Kickstarter campaign for this product met its funding goal in less than an hour, on its way to eclipsing that goal by over 15,000%. Which technical distilling processes were creatively mixed into the game mechanics of Distilled, and which needed to be saved perhaps for a future edition, including heads and tales cuts, the Angel’s share, and pulling flavor notes from wood. How the game educates and introduces players to spirits from different cultures, using  avatars based on historical distillers from around the world - all with special recipe and abilities. Along the way, we talk about why American games are so confrontational, the simple joy of summoning elevators, how to order a proper brandy old fashioned at a Wisconsin supper club, and much, much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this tropical deep dive with home bar architect and Tiki expert Jayme Blaschke, creator of The Lagoon of Mystery and host of A Moment of Tiki, some of the topics we discuss include: How a brush with homelessness and an off-hand comment made while floating in a pool spawned a passion for tiki and led Jayme to build and cultivate his beautiful home tiki bar, The Lagoon of Mystery. A virtual walk-through of some of the building materials, design choices, and escapist landscaping that morphed Jayme’s Texas poolside patio into a transportive oasis that plays “Dive In” movies during the summer. Some thoughts on how to relate to Tiki culture as a white guy - which Jayme and I both are. We offer perspectives and concrete resources that will help you learn about colonialism, appropriation, and how to celebrate Tiki tastefully in the 21st century. A fun romp through the many genres of island-appropriate music that you can use to flesh-out your Tiki playlist - including exotica, calypso, bossa nova, and modern indigenous compositions that will whisk you away to a tropical landscape. Along the way, we discuss what kind of Tiki bar could boast a mechanical bull, how to avoid weevils in your bamboo, why NOT to drink green beer with J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis, and much much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this fascinating deep dive on Japanese Whisky, past and present, some of the topics I discuss with Nicholas Pollacchi of Shibui Whisky include: The complicated history of Japanese whisky making, including the sharp left turn that makes this tradition diverge (and reconnect) surprisingly with other world whisky traditions. How Shibui is looking to help Japanese distillers and master blenders embrace a new, more collaborative mindset and source more compelling cooperage. Then, we embark upon an ambitious, 7-spirit tasting that spans Shibui’s Niigata and Okinawa collections, showcasing wheat, malt, and rice whiskies from some of Japan’s best artisan distillers. During this tasting, we cover the nuances of different grain bases and barrel finishes (including the legendary mizunara oak grown in Japan), as well as different ways to think about Japanese whisky in the greater world whisky landscape. Along the way, we discuss the difference between whisky and Okinowan Awamori, the effects of colonialism on the Japanese approach to distilled spirits, what to drink with legendary Scotch distiller William Grant, and much, much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

Eric examines the ways in which spirits can be identified as either "flawed" or "faulty." Some of the topics covered in this Bar Cart Foundations Episode include: The similarities and differences between spirits judging and other judged events (like dog shows) Why it helps to compare spirits by category and style in order to really amplify the good and bad attributes How to identify potentially dangerous faults in spirits that may be caused by ingredient sourcing, sanitation, or barrel contamination issues. How to spot less harmful (but still sub-optimal) spirits flaws and trace them back to a particular moment in the manufacturing process Why craft distillers are the most susceptible to producing flawed spirits, And much, much more This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

Eric gives you a few things to look out for during the second half of 2021, including Japanese spirits and cocktails, orchard-to-table drinks and garnishes, and a few surprises and teasers along the way.