After Party 001 - The Morris, NQ

7 Feb

Where it all began…

In less than 24 hours I need to be in Manchester to set up for the first event in a 2 year programme showcasing a brand new take on activations, yet I’m in Riga International Airport. What is my life.

(For those here just for cocktail specs, boring, but they’re all at the bottom anyway to save you some time away from my monologue.)

It’s fair to say I was nervous prior to this first event, don’t get me wrong, it had been planned extensively, the menu was one I was personally very happy with and in theory I was in a venue that should be really comfortable to me. The Morris, NQ was at the time around 6 months post launch, and managed top to bottom by one of my good pals in industry, Ste Johnston, who since we did HAUS Party 001 received UK Top 50 for The Morris. Probably nothing to do with us, actually, definitely no correlation at all, but I’ve been known to clutch at straws all my life so why stop now. In reality, the venue is fantastic, and Ste & the team deserve all the plaudits.

Onto HAUS Party 001. The event we’d have most prep for out of every event in the next two years, yet somehow I felt unprepared. An impromptu trip to Latvia the weekend prior probably didn’t help with that, but c’est la vie, we live and die by our decisions and we managed to make it work. At the time I thought myself, one on bar and another front of house would be a great way to run these events, which consist of five drinks being served one after another. All for £25 mind, an absolute steal. This was all well and good, but with a full house of people, more people than chairs initially, it was clear that whipping out 30+ of each drink to be ready all at once would be quite the effort. Elliott Kynaston came with us to lead the bar at 001, an integral part of HAUS Bitters and all we’re doing, he knew the specs and can throw volume out at speed, but as it was in Ste’s venue, we also had his helping hands to ensure it ran seamlessly.

The drinks came out one by one, after an initial opening speech by myself to the room full of industry, many from Manchester, some from Liverpool, the brand owners from DropWorks & Thiago who are supporting our HAUS Party journey and even some folk from Glasgow, we went into Bright 001. An akvavit serve with a soda top and a nori seaweed infused absinthe spray on top, we then waited for the entire room to finish before moving onto Bold 001. This followed suit through to Bitter 001, Savoury 001 and finally Sweet 001. Now I have to say, the intention was to have this stop start approach with the drinks all being served to the room at the same time, Elliott had mentioned this may not be the best way prior to the event, and I decided to give it a try anyway as I felt the flow would really benefit. It wasn’t the first time he was right and I was wrong, and this was probably the one focus of HAUS Party 001 that I disliked.

It didn’t feel like a party.

Don’t let me lean too hard on hyperbole, obviously it was a great evening, I loved the drinks (hope the attendees did too, and you all like the specs below), but I wanted more interaction between the guests and we didn’t get that. I feel this was down to the stop start nature of the drinks, and I knew moving forward we’d be changing this, thankfully to positive impact, although no spoilers on HAUS Party 002 just yet.

Once the event wrapped up, we had more liquid to sell, £10 per drink for our remaining stock and although we sold 15+ drinks I felt with a less network-esque flow and a more party vibe backed with brand information we’d be able to capture attention better. We also saw a huge positive reaction on HAUS Bitters, which again, was such a proud moment, but I wanted more.

There was so much to reflect on, 2 weeks until MiTo, Liverpool for HAUS Party 002 and no Elliott or Britt (front of house) for this one as we’d have a different set of 3 working, so I had time to think on how I wanted the homecoming event to go. I wanted juicier drinks, crowdpleasers that flowed well one drink into the other and a chance for the supporting DBA brands to speak to the crowd too, to get them even more involved.

I loved seeing HAUS Party 001 come to fruition, and although tired from travelling and putting on the event, it lit a fire up my backside to chase this huge dream of making HAUS Bitters an ecosystem not only for bars but for other great brands in our industry. It won’t be easy, but here we are.

HAUS PARTY 001:

Team:

Elliott Kynaston - Bar - @kyndredspirits

Ste Johnston - Bar - @someguyste

Britt Howard - Front of House - @vocalsbybritt

Dom Allison - Photography - @yodomboy

MENU 001:

BRIGHT 001 - Highball w Ice

HAUS Bitters - Beeswax washed Akvavit - Nori Seaweed infused Absinthe

This drink played on a serve from by book, Bohemian Mixology. A cocktail called Washed Up, which was an absinthe rinse on a Bee’s Knees twist, with akvavit as the base.

I used a Swedish akvavit and 100g of edible beeswax pellets for every 500ml of akvavit. I then vac sealed this together and sous vide for 3 hours at 65ºC before letting cool and straining. This is effectively a form of fat washing but using beeswax as the agent to impart flavour and a touch of body onto the base liquid, it’s not really a honey not but more floral, but a delicious addition to the base spirit.

The Nori seaweed infusion on the absinthe was much easier, a cold infusion for 24 hours in a Scottish absinthe that also uses honey as a modifier in their liquid, to try and tie all ingredients together. I used 10g of Nori seaweed to 100ml of absinthe and then strained & decanted into an atomiser for spraying on top of the serve.

25ml Beeswax infused Akvavit
15ml Lillet Blanc
10ml 2:1 Rich Simple Syrup
2 ‘Drips’ HAUS Bitters
10ml Lemon Juice
Top with Soda
Atomiser of Nori Seaweed infused Absinthe

BOLD 001 - Lowball w/o Ice

DropWorks Barrel Drop - Spiced Apple Whey - Yuzu & Ginger

I’d been playing with a milk punching technique which I’d named ‘Double Punching’ and I’d not seen it used before so wanted to showcase it at this debut event. I may not be hospitality but I am king of just throwing ideas at a wall and seeing what sticks, and this idea had legs, figuratively. The basic premise was can we milk punch a drink twice, effectively milk punch a cocktail and then slightly acid adjust it so it would be acidic enough to curdle milk once again. This way we can impart more flavour through a second infused milk pass, and also increase yield and body of the drink. With that in mind, this drink was served without ice, in a lowball BarGiani glass from NUDE Glass and a couple of drops of Yuzu & Ginger oil on the top.

The recipe below will be enough for 14 drinks, and uses the traditional milk punching method, add all ingredients besides milk together and then pour into your milk when they’re combined. Once you’ve done this, allow it to curdle, strain through the same curds until clear and then add the remaining acid and repeat the process through the none-infused milk. Bottle, freeze and pour 110ml into a glass before garnishing with your oils. I’ve not included acids in the below recipe, but most menus will call for some acid, so make sure you’ve got good stock of malic, citric, tartaric, lactic etc. and also some other special ingredients such as agar agar, xantham etc.

For the Winter Spiced Apple, for every 700ml of fresh apple juice add 4 cinnamon sticks, 15 cloves, 2 star anise, 5 green cardamom pods and a teaspoon of grated nutmeg. Simmer for 20 mins on a medium heat, take off the boil and add 4g malic acid and 5g of citric acid. Let this cool to almost room temp, add 700ml of Barrel Drop and then stir. Strain out the solids and incorporate into 300ml of whole milk which has has cinnamon steeped in for 3-4 hours. This will curdle almost immediately, and honestly, you can start straining straight away until it runs clear. Then keep straining the batch until you have a fully clear mix. Add to this an additional 3g of malic acid, and pour into a second vat of whole milk. It’s a long process this drink, but yield is great and body wouldn’t look out of place on Page 3.

Bottle, chill, pour.

700ml DropWorks Barrel Drop Rum
700ml Winter Spiced PH Adjusted Apple Juice
100ml 2:1 Rich Simple Syrup
300ml Cinnamon infused Whole Milk - 1st Punch
300ml Whole Milk - 2nd Punch
Ginger Oil
Yuzu Oil

BITTER 001 - Highball w Ice

Bitter Rhubarb - Mandarin - Fresh Basil

This was the simplest drink on Menu 001, a riff on a Garibaldi. Basically a Campari + Orange but with a 45ml base pour of a mix of bitter rhubarb, then topped with mandarin juice infused with fresh basil for 45 mins. We hoped for more of a frothed orange layer, but the mandarin wasn’t getting the desired texture, still delicious but not quite aesthetically what we hoped.

25ml Rhubarb Santoni
15ml Giffard Rhubarb
5ml Campari
Top w Basil infused Mandarin Juice (60-70ml)
Garnish w Basil Leaf

SAVOURY 001 - Coupetini w/o Ice

Dill - Tomato & Cucumber - Dairy

Another day, another milk punch. Surely the last one on this menu? Surely!?

This little beauty was a copy paste serve from Bohemian Mixology, a drink called Water of Life. It’s super savoury, using cucumber juice and tomato water along with lemon and a specific dill forward aquavit, Dild from Aalborg. We blend cucumbers without the skin and then pass through muslin, for the tomato water, cut up your preferred toms into quarters and then lightly press them through a sieve, we want the clear liquid without the thick pulp. It takes time but it’s worth it. You could always blend & pectinex but we didn’t here.

A good milk punch will take between 20-30% of the volume of the cocktail as whole milk, and then pour the mixed drink into it. You’ll see thick curds, and then you’re golden to strain. Below makes just over 4 serves. 110ml pour once chilled for each drink, we garnished with a cherry tomato drizzled with oil and Maldon sea salt.

100ml Dild Aquavit
100ml Clarified Cucumber Juice
100ml Tomato Water
100ml Lemon Juice
20ml 2:1 Rich Simple Syrup
105ml Whole Milk

SWEET 001 - Pony w/o Ice

Thiago Coffee - Mascarpone - Savoiardi (Gluten Free)

Could we make a Tiramisu in cocktail form? It was absolutely worth a try and from the feedback on the event, I think we nailed it. I promise this is the last milk punch on the menu, we don’t want to be known for only being able to do one technique as we travel the country, that’s been done before and like milk, spoils quickly.

The milk on this drink was infused for 24 hours with gluten free Savoiardi biscuits, if you’re not doing this for gluten free guests just use normal, we spent £45 on biscuits just to flavour our milk, we could’ve done that for 1/5th of the price if they weren’t gluten free. We used 100g of biscuits for every 600ml of whole milk, they soak it up quite well, so leave it refrigerated and then make sure to strain well to get all the milk out of the biscuits.

Once you have your flavoured milk, you need your cocktail to pour into it. Our mix was Thiago Coffee, mascarpone, fresh espresso, marsala wine, port and some lactic acid that we acid adjusted the espresso with. You can use a lactic acid solution for this, and I’ve tried it since, but instead of incorporating water and diminishing flavour, just adjust the espresso. Also, blend the mascarpone into the cocktail mix and make sure it’s thoroughly emulsified. The recipe below will make you a hell of a lot of Tiramisu in drink form, so feel free to scale this back based on how much milk you infuse.