Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bartending

How do I learn a LOT about beer in a short amount of time?

macrowave — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:56:10 -0800

I need links to interesting websites and enjoyable books about the history of and current practices of beer making and beer tasting. I start a new bartending job soon, and I may have scored it by pretending to know more than I really do about brew. I currently work at a bar, and have had extensive service industry experience, but the new job involves a super extensive list of bottles from around the world and a changing lineup of relatively unusual drafts. We've been warned that brewers and booze snobs will be among our regulars and that we all need to brush up on our factoids if we're going to really pull through as staff members. I'm in Chicago, so if you are too, think HopLeaf restaurant (it's not there, but I'd rather not give away my identity/location cuz I don't wanna be haggled!).

I'm hoping to start with fun to read literature. Something along the lines of "Salt-A World History" but about beer. I know that there are tons of guides out there, and that this question is highly google-able, but I'm hoping for suggestions that you have personally read, enjoyed, and been enlightened by. I know too that they key is TASTING all of these beers, but I need to know more about what I'm tasting and how to describe it. I need to be a beer nerd starting tomorrow! And yes, I already love and enjoy beer, that's not a problem. I'm just a bit of a n00b when it comes to critical analysis and meaningful beer-related chitchat. Help!

Am I too old andf experienced to be a bar-back/bartender?

TwilightKid — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:35:30 -0800

I'm 37, Male, College Degree in Business, Married with two kids in New Jersey. Spent the last 15 years working in an shrinking industry. I have decided to go back to school during the day to earn a degree in a different field where job prospects over the next decade will be in a higher demand. Looking for ways to bring in some money right now....(more after the jump).. Without going into details that don't play a role in my question, I think I want to bartend or even bar-back a couple of nights a week to bring in some cash....I batended in college for a year, almost 20 years ago. I know drinks have not changed that much over the years.
There are over 100 wedding, catering, banquet halls within 20 miles of me, if not more....Going in with my resume, as is, my qualifications obviously don't line up exactly with the kind of people they usually get applying for these positions.
Do I have any kind of chance of landing a job? Do they want younger kids? What can I do to my resume to improve my chances? Should I explain my situation in the cover letter, and stress how my age and professional experience will prove to give the wedding hall' a more stable and responsible bartending hand?

I'm sure I am not the only unemployed person looking to get into these positions. I am hoping someone could provide some advice or guidance on how I can get to the top of the list of candidates for these positions?

Yes, I can bartend! I'm a bartender! I tend bar!

sexyrobot — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:44:16 -0800

I'm looking for a good, downloadable, Bartenders/Mixed Drinks/Cocktail cheat sheet. Preferably free. I've been googling for an hour with no luck... See, I've got a bartending gig tomorrow and I'm waaay rusty, my bartending experience is minimal, my resume' padded, and I'm now sober. I'm kind of stressed about it, and normally would turn the gig down, but I need the $. Here's what I need: a free (hopefully), downloadable, bartenders cheat sheet, 1 or 2 pages, listing the top 50-60 popular drinks (the main problem here is "too many and it's useless"), including a few classics (i make a good martini, but i always forget whats in a manhattan). Everything i find on google is like "3000 recipes on one page!!1! Looking for free BARTENDER CH33t Sh33t? BUY NOW!, weight watchers cocktail points, art projects and the like...TMI
Does anybody know where my golden PDF is at?

What should I know before I start handing out drinks?

nicolas léonard sadi carnot — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:23:50 -0800

I've landed a trial shift at a pretty busy bar this coming Saturday night. I'm pretty comfortable with most kinds of hospitality work, whether front of house or behind the scenes, but I've never done quite this sort of thing before. What should I know before I go in? How should I gird my loins?

Strange Brew

alcoth — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:06:41 -0800

What is the name of this bizarre alcoholic drink mixture? Also, can you think of any other really vile mixes? Description provided inside. I heard about this a while back but can't for the life of me remember what it's called. Google also has not been forthcoming with the answer this time... The idea is: Drinks have been passing through the bartender's hands all night and his drink tray is full of the "spoils of war", small amounts of dozens of different types of liquor that have spilled over the lips of various glasses. When this mystery drink is ordered by name, said bartender lifts the tray and pours it into a glass (the color is different every time!). Does anyone know the name of this nasty concoction? (Strange Request: Links to pictures score bonus points!)

Also, what other bizarre mixes can one offer unsuspecting drinking buddies? Cement Mixer doesn't count (gag!)

What's Irish and stays out all night?

cior — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:29:31 -0800

I need advice on classy Irish drinks, hosting a whisky tasting and the proper way to make a Black & Tan without making a mess. My fiancé and I have been nominated to tend bar at our yacht club's St. Patrick's Day dinner. We're a solid team behind the bar, but have no experience with Irish drinks and drinking customs.

What makes a great whisky tasting? Any recommendations on the whisky? Should we have specific accompaniments?

We'd like to include some classy Irish cocktails, but can only find minty bright green crass options online. What should we try?

Is there a fool-proof way of making a good Black and Tan? We've got the Guiness and the Harp's Lager covered, both in kegs.

Thank you!

Naked Nymph?

blue andrea — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:43:20 -0800

The Naked Nymph is s'posed to be a cocktail. I went looking for the recipe, and couldn't find it. Anyone ever heard of/had a Naked Nymph? Know what's in it?

Small Ice vs. Big Ice

fedward — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:04:17 -0800

Craft bartenders say that big ice melts more slowly than small ice. How is this possible? Treating the cocktail as a closed system, if you include an equal mass of ice, and the starting and ending temperatures are the same, wouldn't the same amount of heat be transferred into the ice, resulting in an equal quantity of melt? Is it possible within the constraints of the average kitchen to have a large enough mass of ice with a cold enough starting temperature, such that the ratio of surface area to cocktail affects the total ice melt in the drink? If you take that sufficiently large mass of ice and break it into smaller pieces, will more of it melt before the drink reaches its final temperature? Wouldn't the increased surface area actually reduce total melt, despite what the cocktailians say?

For your math, you can start with several assumptions:

Starting temperature of the liquid ingredients is room temperature of 20° C (68° F). Starting temperature of the ice is -15° C (5° F), presumed to be within range for a home freezer.

Call it a closed system, assume a perfect vessel with no specific heat of its own, and ignore (for now) the transfer of heat from the air, the drinker's hands, etc.

For the purpose of this discussion, leave aside the aesthetics of shaking and stirring, and just assume that the cocktail and the ice are well enough exposed to each other to cool the drink to the freezing point.

Again for the purpose of this discussion, use an 80mm sphere as the largest practical mass of ice. (It's expensive, but it's attainable at home so we'll go with it).

For the cocktail, use:

50ml Tequila
25ml Cointreau
25ml lime juice

I wouldn't know how to calculate the specific heat of this, but I'm sure someone here will.

For extra credit, address the issue of outside heat from the environment, the hands, etc. Once the drink has been properly cooled, does large ice melt more slowly than an equal mass of small ice over the 30 minutes to one hour a drink might be nursed?

For extra extra credit, find me a credible explanation of the current science on how ice melts. I get that enthalpy of fusion explains where the energy goes on a system level, but how does it work at the surface of the ice in my drink? Does the energy from my drink only go into the molecules of ice it contacts directly, or does some of that energy go below the surface of the ice? If it goes below the surface, does it get spread out across the entire mass?

[sidebar]
I have an understanding from a high school science class that ice doesn't go through its phase change until its entire mass has reached the melting point. There are three possibilities here:

This is completely true, and there is no large enough mass of ice such that the core temperature is lower than the temperature at the surface when the surface has reached its melting point.

This was believed to be true when I took high school science, but has since been disproved (see also).

This was known even then to be untrue, but was used as a convenience for the sorts of calculations that happen in a high school science class.

Anybody?
[/sidebar]

Should I bartend to supplement my income?

helios410 — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:01:36 -0800

I am self-employed and my work schedule has been erratic as of recently. I am looking to supplement my income, and I was thinking about bartending. Is this a viable option here in NYC for a guy who has to go to bartending school first? And furthermore, can anyone recommend a good bartending school in the area?

Like a bartender

sixcolors — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:31:33 -0800

I am interested in doing some bartending this summer and fall. I worked in several restaurants before, but not as a bartender. What is it really like? There's already a thread on how to get a job as a bartender, but it didn't touch on how it was like day-to-day.

I want to know what I'm getting myself into. If you are/were a bartender....

What did you like about it?

What did you hate about it?

What were your specific duties?

What were the most popular drinks you served?

I have evening classes...is it possible to get hired doing weekdays only?

How to make vodka bacon-flavored?

d. z. wang — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:54:35 -0800

How can I infuse bacon flavor into vodka? The product doesn't need to be vegan or kosher or anything special---just want to go into a kitchen and whip up some bacon-flavored vodka. I know you can leave, say, lemon zest in a bottle of vodka for a few days and get lemon-flavored vodka, but will it work with bacon? My primary concern is whether the lovely greasy flavor of bacon is fat-soluble, in which case it probably won't partition out into a polar environment like water and ethanol. Has anyone tried this?

I'm only interested in methods that can be done in a reasonably stocked kitchen, without even specialized bartender-ware, if such things exist, so please no industrial or laboratory sep-funnel-and-reflux solutions. Although if bacon-flavored vodka exists, I would dearly love to know how they make it.

Taxes and bartending have always been a delightful mix

OrangeDrink — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:47:21 -0800

Okay, but what do you do if you haven't reported any income at all? My friend is a bartender down in San Mateo, California. He has been paid under the table for over a year and didn't report any earnings from this job last year, but reported income from a previous job.

Now, as tax time comes this year, I'm urging him report his income. The problem is he doesn't want to get the place he works in trouble. How can he do this without screwing over his boss?

Bonus questions - what are the consequences if he doesn't report any income, or if he says he made half of what he did?

Getting a second job at a bar/restaurant in the Bay Area: which one? how to survive working two jobs?

salvia — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:19:07 -0800

I’m thinking of getting a second job at a bar or restaurant in the Bay Area, on top of a serious day job. Any tips on 1) places to apply and 2) how to survive working two jobs? Here are my various criteria:

1) A fun place to work – cool, interesting people and a fairly relaxed atmosphere. Part of why I'd do this is to meet people I wouldn't usually meet. I couldn’t deal with fine dining. In fact, the less of a required “uniform,” the better.

2) Location. It’s a bit tricky, because my day job is in SF (south of the Montgomery BART) but I live on the Oakland/Emeryville border.

The most convenient location would be Emeryville or anywhere on the San Pablo corridor. The second most convenient would be somewhere near my work. I could start earlier if I worked in SF, but getting home would be harder (after 12:30 AM I’d be limited to the once-hourly All Nighter bus).

More broadly, I could probably work anywhere in downtown SF, the Mission, downtown Oakland, Rockridge, Emeryville, or downtown Berkeley.

3) Actually getting hired. : ) I'd prefer bartending but don't know if I could get hired -- I have fairly minimal bartending experience (I’ve poured beer and wine). I have a fair amount of restaurant experience (a brick oven pizzeria, serving, food prep, catering), and I'm a hard worker, so I think I'd be okay once I got in the door. I could be a hostess or food runner for a few months while trying to work my way up the ladder. Seen any Help Wanted signs lately? :) How should I address the fact that I have another job?

4) The schedule. Do you think it’d be tricky to find shifts that start after my normal work hours? I’ll probably have to have shifts that start fairly late. Right now I work here 9:30-7 but could move that to 8-5:30 and maybe even leave here at 4 pm once a week. I'm completely flexible on weekends.

5) Money – obviously, good tips are better. : ) I’m doing this most of all to raise extra money for an exciting personal goal (buying some land).

Overall, I’m still trying to figure out whether this idea is going to work. How hard is it to have a second job on top of a serious career-path office job? If you’ve done this, how did it work out for you? I can probably handle being sleep deprived for awhile, but I’d eventually have to reduce my hours to something that doesn’t make me totally exhausted.

Any tips – things I should consider, things that made it easier for you? Thanks for any ideas!

Name that drink.

Telf — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:27:43 -0800

What do I call this drink? I'm a pretty regular scotch and soda drinker, but was recently introduced to a new libation. My buddy ordered a scotch, ginger ale and bitters. It's good, but what is it called? I've been ordering this at some of the better bars around town but feel like an ass explaining the drink each time. Is there a common name for this drink? My google fu has failed me.

Specifically it's a tall single of decent lower end scotch, usually Dewars. It's topped off with ginger ale then finished with just a dash of Angostura bitters.

This has to be an established drink, it seems so obvious.

the art of pouring a beer.

mjao — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 19:07:40 -0800

Anyone who's ever worked in a bar... The science of pouring beer? How to master the "two-part pour"...without tipping the glass. I just got a casual job in a dodgy pub for some extra pocket money while I study full-time. Now, I've worked in a bar before, for 2 years. But we mostly served bottled beer. There was a couple of different beers on tap, but it was basically for people who wanted a cheap beer, rather than for people who cared about the way the beer was served. Nevertheless, I didn't seem to have any problems pouring a glass of beer. Until now!

At this new pub, most of the alcohol purchased is indeed, tap / draught beer.
And my boss is on my back about the way I pour it!

At my old job, I was taught to tip the glass at about a 45 degree angle, then to slowly straighten up the glass toward the end. Sometimes you had to "wank" the glass, to get a better head (which I've since found out is the wrong thing to do, for beer connoisseurs.)

But, at this new job, my boss insists that I learn to pour a beer without tipping the glass.
Even though every other barperson I work with tips the glass, he for whatever reason, needs me to learn to pour with the glass straight. If he sees me tipping the glass, he comes over and physically grabs the glass out of my hand, then says "No -- Look: It pours itself." And he keeps telling me, "it pours itself" as he demonstrates:

1. Keep the glass straight.
2. When the glass is around half full, turn off the tap, let it settle and a head forms.
3. Top the glass up.

I assume the reason he wants me to learn this method, is no wastage.

But he is giving me hardly any hours until I learn "how to pour beer properly". He sticks me out in the back bar where there is almost no one to buy beer, so I don't get much practice. And the worst part is, he gets people to "teach me", but they teach me to tip the glass, which of course, he yells at me for!

The other barpeople think it's weird that he doesn't seem to notice that everyone else tips the glass... and I think it's weird too! On my last shift, three other girls and I tried to pour the beer "his way", but nobody could figure it out. The only thing I can think of to deal with this situation is to give him what he wants: learn it his way. But it's tricky.

I feel like I'm in bizarro world... help!
Does anyone have any tips? I'd really love to know the science behind pouring beer.

Every single tap is different, and every single beer behaves differently; I have to somehow learn to get a handle on them all.

Pour testing skills improvement

baphomet — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:33:28 -0800

Bartenders: What can I do to improve my pouring skills? [pour inside] Yesterday I took my first official pour test at work- and did really poorly. The test is to pour 12 1 1/4oz. pours with the left hand, 12 with the right hand, and then repeat the same procedure with 2oz. pours. The liquid (1L of room-temperature water mixed with about 1/2oz. of grenadine) is poured into a mixing tin, then into an Exact-O-Pour- the pour tester has 6 tubes and it's done blindly, so you can't correct your pours as you go.

While practicing earlier in the day I managed to get a straight line of 1 1/4ths several times, but naturally when I had to do it in front of 2 managers and a revolving cast of servers I completely blew it. My 2oz. pours were especially bad.

What can I do to pour more accurately? In April I have to take the serious pour test (yesterday was more of an "evaluation") and if I don't get within 1/8th oz. on at least 90% of my pours, really bad things happen.

I'm going to start pouring for 30 mins before my shifts to get the practice I need in, but I really need help on technique. I've only been free-pouring for about 2 months now, so my question is: what did you do to really nail your pours down consistently and accurately?

I Need Drinks Inspired by Famous Authors

jmprice — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 18:54:59 -0800

I am hosting a literary drinking game party tomorrow night and I need author-themed drinks! Can you suggest some? I'm hosting a drinking game tomorrow night where the participants (a group of former English majors) drink for every great work of English literature they dodged reading in high school and college.

I would like to make mini-shots (.75 oz) that are inspired by authors. So far I'm going to be making a Hemingway strained mojito and a Faulkner baby mint julep. Any other suggestions?

[There's a book out right now (Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide to Great American Writers) that would be perfect but it's not available by me.]

Mango Vanilla Mojito recipe anyone?

aaronh — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:15:32 -0800

Does anyone have a recipe for a Mango Vanilla Mojito? I had a great cocktail at E&O Trading Company. It was a mango vanilla mojito. It must have been a special or it's now gone because I don't see it on their menu.

I'd love to be able to recreate it. I've found some mango mojito recipes, but I'm hoping someone here knows exactly what I'm looking for.

Help me Obi-Wan Bartender. You're my only hope.

How do I make an angry martini?

BitterOldPunk — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 00:23:49 -0800

Anyone know how to mix a cocktail called an "angry martini"? I ran across the reference in a movie, googled it, found more references but no recipes, checked DrinkBoy and Webtender, no luck.

How do I get a bartender job?

tangelo — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 11:14:19 -0800

How do I get a bartender job? I live in L.A. where bartending gigs are notoriously competitive and the turnover is low, but I really want to try my hand at it anyway. I worked in a bar for a couple years as a DJ and I think I have the right manner for it. I've been studying up on cocktails, and a bartender friend of mine is going to give me a crash course in mixology.

I've been scouring the web obsessively for information on how to break into the bartending world, and there seem to be two major schools of thought: 1) start as a barback, or 2) lie and conjure up a fake history of bar work. My bartender friends highly recommend the latter, but I'm nervous to go that route because I'm a terrible liar.

My question: if you are/were a bartender, how did you get your start?

CA liability for alcohol service at private events?

echolalia67 — Sun, 07 Mar 2004 21:55:18 -0800

I live in California. If I have a wedding reception at a hotel or restaurant and serve alcohol using the facility's bartenders and servers, who is responsible/legally liable if one of my guests gets into an accident - me, as the host of the event, or the hotel/restaurant who provided the servers and bartenders?