A couple-three weeks ago, a Blair and I were at Teardrop Lounge here in Portland. Somehow he ended up with a whiskey sour that included a reduction of framboise or kriek. I’m not sure who the progenitor was: whether Blair called it out by ingredient or if David was inspired and put the combination together. But it was tasty, and the next time I was there I asked David for the same. We discovered a couple of things about the framboise or kriek reduction and a couple of things about bourbon.
I went home and reduced a bottle of Lindemans Framboise Lambic to one-third its volume (in a saucepan, over low heat, scraping the sides and bottom of the pan occassionally with a spatula, taking 30-40min). It becomes a thick liquid with a purple cast. It tastes very strongly of raspberries and is fairly sweet and tart. It is almost a syrup and probably would be fantastic drizzled over some of that vegan coconut cream icy-dessert stuff.
It took about a week of play before I felt that I had a formula down. This is a tasty drink, combining flowers and berries in the aroma and setting up the sweet and sour against the bourbon. The drink holds up to ice melt, which will be great as the summer warms up.
Whiskey-Framboise Sour
Build in the glass, over cracked ice, pouring
◇ 2oz bourbon,
◇ ½oz lemon juice,
◇ ¼oz framboise reduction, and
◇ ¼oz rich simple syrup.
Stir.
Float a teaspoon of rosewater over the top.
Garnish with a lemon wheel.
Last Wednesday I entertained a couple friends at the Prince of Cups. One of the drinks I offered was this one. I used Buffalo Trace bourbon and Elizabethan Pantry rosewater.
Jamie Boudreau wrote a blog post (in September 2007) recommending a similar process on 3-5 various beers (including a pumpkin ale!). His procedure is to produce a syrup from the ale and additional sugar, then dilute that syrup with vodka to make a liqueur. He suggests letting the bottle sit open overnight to help blow-off dissolved CO2.
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