How to prebatch cocktails 🥃

The last few weeks I’ve seen an increase in people tagging me in their cocktail photos, which is amazing! If you post a photo of your creation I’d love for you to tag me (Instagram @stevethebartender). Here’s one of my recent favourites of a perfectly executed New York Sour by Sylvain.

p.s. I’m feeling very grateful for all the interest and messages regarding the upcoming cocktail courses. I’ve made some good progress these last couple days by finalising the curriculum and the landing page. I’m very excited to film it and put it all together!

🎥 VIDEOS

This week’s video follows on from my tip in last week’s newsletter - to microwave your cocktails. Mixing ingredients together doesn’t homogenise instantaneously and by microwaving a cocktail it “softens and integrates the mix, harmonizing the flavors on the spot.”, according to Ryan Chetiyawardana. It works best with cocktails that lend themselves to ageing, rather than brighter drinks that contain citrus.

The technique rapidly infuses flavour into drinks too, like a sous vide on turbo.

MORE YOUTUBE VIDEOS

• DIY coconut rum liqueur | Cocktail Time by Kevin Kos

• Mojito syrup | Edd Siu

• Strawberry Negroni | Truffles on the Rocks

🔥 TIP OF THE WEEK

Upscaling and prebatching a cocktail:

I get countless messages asking me how to scale up a cocktail into a large format drink for parties yet it’s incredibly simple. There are 8 ounces per US cup (240ml) so all you need to do is use cups instead of ounces from your recipe and you’ll make 8 drinks. Here’s a Manhattan as an easy example:

• 2 oz rye whiskey 👉 2 cups whiskey

• 1 oz sweet vermouth 👉 1 cup whiskey

• 2 dash ango bitters 👉 16 dash ango bitters

From here you have two options…

1. Batch and bottle the ingredients then stir the room temp prebatch with ice, as you normally would. But, if you’re prebatching 8 serves I’m assuming that you want to serve them fast…so I’d recommend option two.

2. Add dilution to your prebatch. It’s best to make a test drink yourself and measure your preferred percentage of dilution as it varies on personal preference and the drink you’re serving.. but if you’re feeling lazy, here’s a guide for the amount of dilution required:

• Stirred drinks: 41-49% of the recipe volume (29-33% of total volume)

• Shaken drinks: 51-60% of the recipe volume (34-38% of total volume)

If you like it boozy, less dilution. If you like it softer, more dilution. Simples.

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Cheers,
Steve the Bartender

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