mixology | Apothecary Shed

The Cloudbreak

February 7, 2026

gem mixology cloudbreak, cocktail, cocktail recipe, cocktails, friday saturday sunday, mixology 1 Comment

This is one of the best cocktails in our pile.

(RE the discover in 2017.)

RHINE turns 60

November 22, 2025

gem music, party april, big box of bad behavior, birthday, claggett, easton, kilt, Liberal, mixology, party, rhine, romery Leave a comment

We have sent an emissary beyond the event horizon. What is over there? Can light escape? Can you bring your own booze?

More importantly in this particular instance, what do you bring to a surprise party with a critical mass of Claggetts?

Why a big box of bad behavior of course! That did make things really fun lickety-split like. The Liberal was the most requested beverage of the night…until we ran out of bourbon.

Romey surprised the bartender with a kilt made by an Italian designer. She is a McGraw.

So much love.

We even corrupted the young people with first martini’s. Careful AJ, it is a slippery slope to 60!

And yes there was both music.

And philosophy of mind late into the wee hours. We’re pretty sure we chose to do that. But maybe not.

It is nice to be an honorary Claggett, even if it takes a little bar tending and a big box of bad behavior.

Rania DC: Best Indian Ever

October 16, 2025

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After our second trip to Rania in DC, we just have to say something. Outstanding.

.
The drinks are ridiculous and interesting and the food is bursting with flavor.

Are you amused?

A great target for dinner before a show at the Warner.

Milk Punch

December 20, 2024

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Having never made milk punch before (but having had plenty), we opted to make some. This potion takes some things…

We had it all but the Italicus (which donnie provided). While waiting for the curds to set, we had an Italicus martini.

Cheers!

Yo Turns 65

June 17, 2023

gem food, party, photography, travel belgium, bookstore, caroline, garden, gem, grappa, leuven, mixology, party, photography, travel, video, violin, yo 2 Comments

Nothing quite like staying with dear friends in Leuven. Yo and Caroline are excellent hosts. This visit was made even more fun by including a 65th birthday party for Yo.

Here are some pictures from my visit.

I even managed to sneak into the circus on Friday evening. An incredible show focused on lighting matches, making pizzas, and spinning plates.

The cast of two and the poor “volunteers” who were pulled from the audience.

Leuven.

There was dancing in the kitchen.

And there were homemade cakes.

We even got to try out some mixology for the party.

Rosemary grappa lemonade…let’s call it the “yo-yo 65.”

The birthday king presides.

The actual power behind the throne is slightly capricious.

The site of the party is the back garden with lots of veggie plants. Delicious food was about as “locally sourced” as you can get. There were fresh snap peas and strawberries. So healthy and so delicious.

This gorgeous cake was my favorite. Banana cheesecake. Yum.

There was some dancing in wooden clogs yo some truly bad fiddle sawing.

We walked several miles together all using the house as a base of operations.

And we visited the English books at FNAC to compare notes.

All in all about as much fun as you can have in Leuven!

Catoctin Creek: Local Excellence in Distilling

November 10, 2021

gem food, mixology catoctin creek, distillery, gem, mixology, romey, scott and becky Leave a comment

It was an interesting evening…a fundraiser for the USO at the best local distillery (well, the best legal local distillery anyway). The dress instructions were vague and a bit confusing. Something about casual something or other with red and black. LOL.

So anyway, we wore this.

Black and red fancy casual (LOL) @catoctincreek for a great dinner with @rivco @GeriRivers @scohar70 @beckhar67 benefitting @the_USO pic.twitter.com/f34Lywb3Jg

— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) November 7, 2021

Our dear friends Donnie and Geri came and we scored the head table with our excellent hosts and good friends Scott and Becky. Scott and Becky are the powerful couple behind Catoctin Creek.

Scott pinged me and we did the kilt thing!

I love wearing my kilt, and I especially love it when my buddies wear theirs too. More kilts is what we need to solve global warming.

The kilts and the stills

Romey was resplendent in her red shoes.

The food was good. The company was interesting. And the 1908 Rye? Well, you only get to try that once or twice in one 2021 life.

We ran the proof in the back.

Great night for a Great Cause. Thank you Fred and all who participated! The 1908 Mellon Overholt measured at 94.7 proof. pic.twitter.com/kOt27d040Y

— curtk (@curtk) November 8, 2021

Fred Minnick was the MC

Fred did a great job keeping things moving and imparting wisdom about the booze we were drinking.

Geri in the house

More fred

There was cake.

All the hosts at once.

A Paper Plane nightcap back at the home bar ended the evening.

Paper plane pic.twitter.com/JqSq9XyF4W

— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) November 7, 2021

Amer Picon Experiment 3

December 13, 2018

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We’re there I think. Our third shot at homemade Amer Picon is in the jar. Next comes siphoning.

This time we adjusted the recipe only slightly with the addition of some bark infusion. Hopefully that will not kill us.

The key to all this is make sure the oranges are green and burn the heck out of the caramel.

BASE RECIPE HERE.

Strain the infusions (three this time)

Mix in a big old jar.

Looking good. Once the material settles, we’ll extract our Picon. We need a centrifuge!

Thanks to Christa for the raw materials and the inspiration!

How to make Boilo

December 15, 2017

gem mixology boilo, daily beast, david wondrich, local product, mixology, shine 2 Comments

Ever since we made a batch, we’ve been running around yelling “Marco” “Boilo!” which after enough boilo is highly amusing. But I digress. What IS boilo anyway??

There is nowhere with more authority to turn to than David Wondrich, who wrote this Daily Beast article. Thanks for cluing us in!

After reading the article (you should read it) we were bummed to find that there was no associated recipe.

Twitter to the rescue! David provided this pointer.

An unofficial boilo recipe. Realize that boilo is an individual thing. Make it your own.

Of course we had to make some…

#boilo NPS step 0. All non-booze ingredients: honey, black cherry seltzer, ginger beer, oranges, lemons, cinnamon, caraway, clove, allspice, mace, star anise pic.twitter.com/fr40Np4CpP

— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) December 14, 2017

We made some adjustments to the recipe…abandoning raspberry ginger ale for black cherry selzter and ginger beer. We also added Star Anise and Mace which we just so happened to have sitting around. This is upscale boilo by god!

#boilo NPS step 1: boil on down the non-liquor pic.twitter.com/TA5SJfNCx1

— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) December 15, 2017

#boilo NPS step 2: remove rinds and cool to less than 175. No alcohol burnoff allowed. pic.twitter.com/4UfUFXTbPa

— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) December 15, 2017

We boiled for a good 15-20 minutes, letting the spices infuse. But then we let the liquid cool down so that none of our alcohol would evaporate when we added it.

Since we have very good access to local shine, why, we used that. the gallon that we used clocked in not too hot at 107.4 proof. Believe me, the shine from around here is an outstanding product, and it clocks in higher than that with some regularity.

At first we were thinking 2 quarts. But then, what the hell…

#boilo NPS step 3: a little local product at 107.4. pic.twitter.com/0tFEm1Zz8p

— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) December 15, 2017

The warm boilo was pretty good, but it was WAY better this morning after some more steeping time.

#boilo NPS step 3.5: try the raw boilo before waiting around for 5 hours. #boilo is good. pic.twitter.com/YOz83pYZ97

— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) December 15, 2017

Final product came out just shy of two gallons. We imagine it’s somewhere between 60 and 80 proof. Can’t bubble it since there is so much crap in the liquid.