The Case For Kegged Cocktails

Based on a quick scan of its back bar, you may think that Tavernita, the newly opened Spanish restaurant by Chef Ryan Poli, is trying to give beer meccas like Bangers & Lace a run for their money. A neat row of more than 20 anonymous wooden tap heads all stand at attention, presumably ready to serve up some suds. (The word "tavern" is right there in the name, after all.) However, while some of those lines do carry beer, the rest are actually serving up everything from kegged red and white wines, to house-made sangria and original cocktails. Tavernita is the latest in a growing group of bars and restaurants in town that are presenting alcoholic beverages other than beer on draft.

While draft beer has undoubtedly become ubiquitous, the notion of having a cocktail that's simply drawn from a spigot may seem, for some people, to fly in the face of their expectations of what enjoying a cocktail entails - which probably, at least in part, is about getting a fresh, custom-made drink to order. With six kegged cocktails on tap, Tavernita is betting big that people will warm this new delivery system. But there's already evidence that diners in Chicago are increasingly accepting of kegged cocktails, wines and spirits. We reported last month about the Carpano Antica red vermouth on draft at Sable Kitchen & Bar. Paris Club and Bombay Spice both serve kegged wine. And at Yusho, the new Japanese restaurant in Logan Square, a rotating carbonated cocktail is a popular item on its drink list.

Alex Bachman, bar manager at Yusho, says that the restaurant has been refilling its 5.15-gallon cocktail keg about every four days. So far, Bachman has done a force-carbonated Paloma (a tequila and grapefruit cocktail) and his version of Chu-Hi (Japanese alcoholic soda). Currently, Yusho has a Dark 'n Stormy on draft.

"In a keg format, everything is carbonated uniformly, and that interested me," Bachman says. "Making Dark 'n Stormys over the years, or Moscow Mules or Gin & Tonics or Champagne cocktails, one thing that always frustrated me was that they had a tendency to lose their carbonation, having come in contact with other non-carbonated ingredients." (Adding ginger beer to flat rum and lime juice means that, by volume, only part of the drink is actually carbonated.) Bachman adds, "I thought if we could load everything into a keg, force-carbonate it and then hook up a tap, it would maintain the integrity of the cocktail and hopefully make it better."

But what about the non-carbonated kegged cocktails at Tavernita? Could they truly taste as good or better than a drink made fresh? Well, there's a strong argument that they can at least be as fresh. While contact with oxygen can quickly degrade the citrus juices common in cocktails, the nitrogen (or carbon dioxide, in the case of carbonated drinks) used to pressurize wine and cocktail kegs is less reactive and thus, helps to keep the contents fresh. And at Tavernita, the sangria and cocktail kegs are equipped with agitators that periodically shake the mixture to keep the ingredients well incorporated.

From what we hear, expect to see more kegged and carbonated cocktails in the near future, most notably at the forthcoming Trenchermen. Barman Tona Palomino has been showing off his penchant for carbonated cocktails at preview events leading up to the restaurant's debut.

What's your opinion on kegged wine and cocktails? Are you ready to embrace this new trend?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Roger Kamholz in Food on January 27, 2012 1:40 PM 0 Comments

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randomcha

I won't dismiss it out of hand--it really does come down to what's in your glass, and how it tastes. Having certain components of a cocktail pre-made is just smart--there's a reason Don the Beachcomber formulated a "zombie mix" for use behind the bar, i.e. who wants to measure 8 drops of Pernod separately for a hundred drinks every night? My only worry is the danger that bartenders will forget how to make things. It's similar to baristas who don't know how to pull a good shot of espresso anymore because now, the machine does everything.

Cayloe

"'In a keg format, everything is carbonated uniformly, and that interested me,' Bachman says."

It's also oxidized uniformly, which can be hit or miss...

"While contact with oxygen can quickly degrade the citrus juices common in cocktails, the nitrogen (or carbon dioxide, in the case of carbonated drinks) used to pressurize wine and cocktail kegs is less reactive and thus, helps to keep the contents fresh."

All the oxidation necessary to start to impact the flavor of the mix has already occurred by the time the drink is sealed up in the keg. It happens when the ingredients are mixed together and then poured into the vessel. The only real thing that kegging has going for it is the uniformity of the oxidation. Instead of the first drink out of a bottle of Carpano being great and the last being terrible, you have a keg of it, out of which every drink will be somewhere in the middle. Ultimately, it's probably a net benefit, but I don't think it's a solution to the problem of oxidation or a replacement for a drink made fresh for well curated ingredients.

Roger Kamholz

That's interesting, Cayloe. Do you know if the oxidation rates of vermouth differ from citrus juices?

Cayloe

Nope. I haven't studied the science at all. I've read quite a bit of interesting popular literature (like the taste test that implied there's a sweet spot re: oxidation of lime juice that is preferable to fresh...which I think is more a case of selection bias, but that's a rabbit hole), and I know enough about the process that I believe most of these places are using to keg their drinks/vermouth to understand that the ultimate result isn't going to be universally fresher. Unless they're mixing/kegging in a vacuum, the taste benefit will come from uniformity, not freshness. That definitely makes it harder to get a bad drink, but it also makes it harder to get an amazing one.

The boost to speed of service is surely driving this as well. However, I do worry about the effect on the industry. If your drink is made days/hours in advance by a prep staff, how long before your skills start to become stale? How do you adjust for a particular person's tastes? How much more limited are you with regard to providing the exceptional customer service that solicits repeat business and increased monetary reward? What differentiates you from the guy manning the taps at the corner bar?