Experimental Thiol Beer

Today I'm brewing an experimental beer making use of one of Omega's Thiolized yeasts as well as Phantasm powder. Both of these products have been available in the homebrew world for awhile, so I realize I'm a little late to the party. I love hop-forward beers like IPAs, but I don't brew them all that often for two main reasons:

1. There is no shortage of fresh commercially brewed IPAs. In fact, the last time I went to GABF in Denver, at least half the menu boards in a lot of the taprooms listed so many IPA and NEIPA beers that it was almost hard to find anything but an IPA. I think you could argue the saturation level of IPAs has caused lots of issues for the craft beer industry, but I digress.
2. IPAs have a relatively short shelf life compared to many other styles. They can still be great, but I have a hard time finishing a keg before I start to notice hop character falling off, and that really bums me out. I tend to only brew IPAs when we have something going on where I know there will be more people around.

So those are the reasons why I don't typically brew IPAs often. So why am I brewing one today? Omega Yeast released their thiolized yeasts a while back and I'd always wanted to try brewing with them and just never got around to it. They recently announced that they're pulling these strains from the homebrew market, so if I was ever going to do it, it needed to be very soon. On that same note, Phantasm powder was released a while back as well. This product is from New Zealand and is made from white grape skins containing high levels of thiol precursors. I bought a small packet of Phantasm over a year ago with the intent of using it in an IPA, and I just recently bought an additional pound of Phantasm at a highly discounted rate (likely due to the Omega strains being discontinued). I'm curious as to how it could be used in sour beers as well, but bought it to be used in hop-forward beers. So here we are, about to brew an experimental "IPA-ish" beer.  

There is a lot of info about brewing with both products, so I'm not going to go too deep into either other than to say these products can bring out fairly intense fruity, especially tropical fruit character in your beer. A lot of the modern trademarked hops that are so popular today also feature similar fruity flavors and aromas. The thought is that pairing thiolized yeast with products like Phantasm powder can bring out tons of fruity character in a beer without having to use huge, arguably wasteful, hop additions...fingers crossed!

One thing that I look for in beers, especially hop-forward beers, is the complimentary layering of hop flavors and aromas. Almost everything I've read indicates the character from the thiolized yeast is pretty surprising, but at the same time they're not all saying they love it. I've heard some comparisons to body odor and others saying it's reminiscent of lemon-scented cleaners...neither is what I'm after here. I'm going to try employing a couple measures to help ensure I end up with something complimentary without it being a one note wonder thiol beer or something that wrecks your palate.  

This definitely is an experiment. I've read through numerous blog posts, including one from Scott Janish that got very technical. I've talked with some commercial brewers that have experimented with both products, one in particular that I really trust because he has a very balanced approach to the beers he brews. So here are my plans for the first attempt:

• Star Party (SP) is the strain I'm using and it's known to produce much higher thiol levels than the first thiolized strain that Omega released, Cosmic Punch (CP). CP is reportedly around a 5x multiplier of thiols, whereas SP may be up to a 300x multiplier. I'm going to try using a blend of US-05 and SP to restrain things a bit and see where that gets me.  
• Normal dosage rate of Phantasm powder is between 1-2.5oz per 5 gallon batch. I'm going with the low end at 1oz for this batch.
• According to what I've read, bract (vegetative matter) from hops can negatively impact thiols, especially when added via dry-hopping, more so late vs. early in the fermentation process. I'm using a reduced amount of Phantasm powder and a blend of yeasts, but I'm still hoping for some noticeable thiol character, so I'm going to try using all Cryo hops (reduced bract) without any dry-hop additions in this beer. There will be a small hop shot addition for bittering, flame out additions, and whirlpool (sub isomerization) additions.
• I've seen a few comments indicating a slightly sweeter beer works better with thiolized yeast. I've also seen that some have indicated the malt profile seems to disappear. Because of this, I'm shooting for a water profile more typical for a NEIPA with a higher chloride to sulfate ratio to emphasize malt character over bitterness.

The grain bill for this beer is based on Juicy Bits from WeldWerks, but I've changed up the hop additions substantially from the published recipe I found. So just to be clear, this isn't intended to be a clone recipe, this is just what I thought might be a good base beer for trying this experiment. Here's the recipe as I'm brewing it today and I'll be sure to post follow-up comments after tasting.

Target OG 1.062

Target FG: 1.012

IBU: 46

ABV: 6.5%

3.5625# Proximity 2-row Pale Malt 

3.5625#  North Star Pilsner Malt

0.875# Rahr Dextrine Malt 

0.625# Flaked Oats

0.625# Flaked Wheat

0.625# Rahr White Wheat Malt

1g BrewTan B (Mash)

6oz Dextrose (Boil)

2ml Hopshot (60 min)

4.66g BCAA (10 min)

Yeast Nutrient

Whirlfloc

9g Mosaic Cryo (Flameout)

9g El Dorado Cryo (Flameout)

1oz Phantasm (Whirlpool)

19g Mosaic (Whirlpool, after temp is below 160F)

19g El Dorado (Whirlpool, after temp is below 160F)

Blend of US-05 and Star Party 

Water Profile using Epsom Salts and calcium chloride 

250 chloride

80 sulfate

Mash at 149F, 90 minute boil, chill to 65F, ferment at 67F.

Water Profile

Target Water Profile
Ca	Mg	Na	SO4	Cl	HCO3
141.1	20.9	0	82.4	249.7	0

Desc: To 10 gallons of RO/distilled water, add:

• 19.6g Calcium Chloride
• 8.0g Epsom salt

Brewing Notes

This is the first brew session with my re-built and upgraded grain mill. I'll be creating a post for it in the not too distant future. In the meantime, here's a link to my original grain mill build. 

Session Readings
Beginning mash pH	5.09
Ending mash pH	5.06
1st running gravity	19.2 (1.077)
Pre-Boil gravity	X (miss)
Pre-Boil pH	X (miss)
Post-Boil gravity	X
Post-Boil pH	X

Florida Lawnmower Beer - American-ish Lager

If you've been following any of my posts, you know I moved from Utah to Florida a little over a year ago. I did some homebrewing-related activities (e.g. blending barrel-aged beer), especially leading up to our move, but it's literally been 527 days since my last brew session. I'm super excited to get back to homebrewing despite feeling very rusty when it comes to my procedures and processes. Hopefully this first Florida beer doesn't turn into a disaster.

I had to leave a few things behind when I moved, including my brew stand and my mill stand. I've rebuilt my brew stand and the post prior to this one is dedicated to it.  

Regarding the brew stand, there are a few changes. Probably the biggest change is I no longer had access to natural gas, so I had to redo my boil setup. Long story short, I've gone full electric including incorporating a 240v/5500w element into my boil kettle. I also converted from my homebuilt 120v/2000w HERMS heat exchanger to a 240v/3500w Blichmann RIMS Rocket to maintain mash temps and perform step mashes. I've done one dry run on the updated system, but today is the inaugural Florida brew session. 

We live in Clearwater near Tampa and in July it's hot and humid. Tampa's claim to fame is it's never been over 100F, but the heat index definitely makes it feel over 100F; this week my phone said the temp was 93F but "feels like 104F". Because of this, I decided to brew a hoppy American-ish Lager, something that should be easy drinking and refreshing after mowing the lawn, hanging out by the pool, etc. The grain bill on this beer is super simple, considering of mostly Pilsner malt and a touch of Crystal 10. There's also some Rice Syrup Solids and Corn Sugar to help dry things out for this crispy lager. Hops-wise, I'm going with Sterling and Motueka at a much more elevated rate than is typical for an American Lager. Yeast-wise, I'm doing a split batch using 34/70 at traditional lager temps, and Lutra Kveik at warmer ale temps. Lutra is said to be very clean and can be used to create pseudo lagers. I've never tried it before, so this will be a fun experiment to compare the same base beer fermented with different yeasts at different temps. 

One other thing, I haven't been able to find an RO water supplier that doesn't add a small amount of minerals back into their RO water. I'm going to try this first batch using the RO with minerals added, while also adding my normal salt additions...and hope for the best. At some point in the future I plan to add an RO system at home (our tap water is really hard and sulfury) but I haven't had a chance to do it yet.

Target OG 14 Brix (1.056)

Target FG: 1.010

IBU: 19.3

ABV: 6.1

10 Gallon Batch

15# Weyermann Barke Pilsner

0.5# Briess Crystal 10L

2ml Hopshot (60 min)

1# Rice Syrup Solids (5 min)

1# Corn Sugar (5 min)

28g (1oz) Sterling Hops (10 min)

28g (1oz) Motueka Hops (10 min)

Wyeast Nutrient

9g BCAA (Dissolved in warm water, 5 min)

1 Whirlfloc (Flameout)

56g (2oz) Sterling Hops (Whirlpool)

56g (2oz) Motueka Hops (Whirlpool)

34/70 Yeast

Lutra Kviek

Mash at 150F. Collect 12 gallons of wort. 90 minute boil.

For the 34/70 Split - Ferment at 54F -56F for 4 days before doing diacetyl rest.

For the Lutra Split - Ferment at 70-72F.

Water Profile

Target Water Profile
Ca	Mg	Na	SO4	Cl	HCO3
58.7	8.4	0	89	62.5	0

To RO or distilled water, add:

• 0.38g/gallon Gypsum 
• 0.32g/gallon Epsom Salt
• 0.49g/gallon Calcium Chloride

Brewing Notes

Thankfully, no real issues. The biggest issue...it was crazy hot and humid today. The guys at my LHBS said hardly anyone brews in the middle of summer here, and I can see why. I was definitely moving a little slower since it had been so long since I brewed and I wanted to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. I think I'd sweated through my shirt within the first 20 minutes or so.

One thing, I knew chilling was going to be a different experience here in Florida where the groundwater temps are somewhere between 80-90F (compared to 50-60F in Utah). I acquired a Blichmann Therminator that I'm using as a pre-chiller for the hose water running through my counterflow chiller. On the pre-chiller circuit I'm recirculating ice water from a 5 gallon reservoir. It ended up taking four total bags of ice and even then I only got it down to about 73F. One mistake I think I made was starting the ice water recirc too early. In the future I think I'll take it as low as I can with ground water temps before recirculating the ice water. I also think it'll work better on a 5 gallon batch. I currently have the 34/70 portion chilling in my fermentation chamber and hopefully I'll be able to pitch tomorrow morning. 

My OG came in a couple points higher than target. I had the boil target temp set at 210 which may have been a tad high as the boil was really rolling, so that may have resulted in a little more boil-off.

Session Readings
Beginning mash pH	5.30
Ending mash pH	5.36
1st running gravity	19.4 (1.078)
Pre-Boil gravity	10.6 (1.041)
Pre-Boil pH	5.50
Post-Boil gravity	14.9 (1.059)
Post-Boil pH	5.32

Update 7/30/2025

Fermentation is moving along although I did have a couple hiccups on the 34/70 half. I ended up pitching the yeast the next day when temps were approximately 60F; my ferm fridge was definitely having a hard time getting down to 55F. I had a large fan blowing on the fridge to try to remove some of the heat emanating from it, but I think this was actually causing more problems than it was solving. I also was seeing ice building up in the ferm chamber. I ended up turning off the fan and I ordered an Eva-Dry dehumidifier to remove excess humidity inside the ferm chamber. After turning the fan off and adding the Eva-Dry, the fridge was working much better at maintaining temps. Unfortunately this was a little too late to hit my target temps, so it definitely fermented warmer than is typical when I brew a lager. I'm hoping the relatively large pitch will help curb unwanted esters in this beer, but time will tell.

Update 8/5/2025

The Lutra half was kegged today. Unfortunately something happened to my Biofine Clear (it turned into a solid block) so I wasn’t able to add any finings. 

Update 8/15/2025

The 34/70 half went in the keg today. I got my hands on some Biofine so this portion was dosed with Biofine Clear on transfer. This was the second half out of the kettle and I ended up with about 4 gallons in the fermenter. So I absolutely had a little more boil off with the electric setup vs my old NG setup in Utah. This definitely surprised me as I would have expected the lower altitude and higher humidity to reduce boil off, but it was boiling pretty vigorously. Next batch, I'll dial the set temp back a little and see if that changes things. 

Also, the Lutra half is fully carb'd and I've had a couple pints. It's a good beer but not the best beer I've ever brewed. No off aromas or off flavors that I can detect, but not as clean as lager yeast either. I'd like to try the experiment again as I think I've figured out some of the chilling and cooling issues. One other thing, I can tell I'm getting better hop utilization at lower altitude as the bitterness in the Lutra half is noticeably higher compared to similar beers I brewed at altitude in a Utah.

Brew Stand 3.0

For those that don't know me personally or anyone stumbling across this post, we moved from West Jordan, Utah to Clearwater, Florida in June of 2024. You might ask, why would someone move from Utah to Florida? Well, both my wife and I are originally from southern California and we were ready to live somewhere warmer (no snow!), closer to water, with an abundance of biking trails, and closer to Disney Parks. SoCal is insanely expensive, so here we are on the other West Coast in Central Florida.

For the big move, I managed to bring all the important things (kettles, fermenters, fermentation fridges, kegs, etc.) but my brew stand (2.0) was too large to fit; it got ditched at the last minute. No biggie, and I figured it was an opportunity to tinker with a new design. So that's the point of today's post, to introduce my brew stand 3.0.

Before we jump into 3.0, here's a brief summary of the first two brew stands:

• Brew Stand 1.0 - This was my original horizontal oriented stand inspired by the famous Brutus 10 style stand. It worked well but had a large footprint. The brew system was a traditional three vessel (Hot Liquor Tank, Mash Tun, and Boil Kettle) plus a dedicated standalone Heat Exchanger. Most HERMS systems use a coil submerged in the HLT, so the standalone Heat Exchanger was kind of my own take on a HERMS style system. Everything pre-boil was electric and controlled by a BCS-460 brewery controller. I had a sweet cold war era-looking control panel on one end. The boil used natural gas and there was a small burner I'd mounted in the stand. There were a few minor equipment changes over time, but I got pretty lucky in that it just worked really well from the start. Keep in mind, this was well before the concept of BIAB and well before any of the AIO systems available today.
• Brew Stand 2.0 - I didn’t ever get around to doing a post about this one. After I acquired too much crap in my garage, I wanted a brew stand with a smaller footprint than 1.0. I also wanted a larger burner that would allow me to get up to a rolling boil faster as I was starting to brew 10 gallon batches more often.
  
  
  I designed version 2.0 as a three tiered system with the HLT at the very top and centered in the frame, the MT was positioned on the middle tier and offset to one side, then the burner for the BK was on the bottom tier and offset to the opposite side. The pump and HEX were mounted to the frame beneath the MT, and the chiller was beneath the BK. I kept the same control panel from 1.0 and had it cantilevered off one side of the stand. This arrangement worked great and my only complaint was that it was a pain to fill the HLT. I usually used RO water, so I'd have to pump the water from my containers up to the HLT. Or if I was using filtered tap water, I'd have to climb up on a step stool to make sure I filled it to the right level. Other than that, the stand worked great and I really liked the positioning of everything. Also, the tiered approach was great because it meant I could gravity feed if needed (e.g. broken pump). 

Now we arrive at Brew Stand 3.0. As I mentioned, I had to leave brew stand 2.0 behind when we moved to Florida. My Florida garage is even smaller than my Utah garage, so I wanted to keep the footprint small. I was considering skipping the whole design and build process and just purchasing an off the shelf AIO system like a Grainfather or Blichmann Breweasy; that would have been the simple approach. The problem is I do like tinkering around with stuff and I really loved the system I'd built. I knew how to brew really well on my custom homebuilt system, I enjoyed brewing on it, and I felt like I really had everything dialed in. Also, if something ever broke, I knew exactly how to fix it. And since it didn't have any proprietary components, I didn't have to worry about what would happen if a company went out of business (e.g. Picobrew). So ultimately I decided to rebuild my old system rather than buy a ready to go brewhouse.

There were two significant design changes I needed to incorporate for 3.0:

1. While my custom built HEX had served me well, the copper coil was starting to show its age. Also, it was only 120v/2000w and struggled to raise the temps when needed (e.g. step mashes, mashout, etc.), especially on 10 gallon batches. I decided to change the design from 120v HERMS to 240v/3500w RIMS by adding a Blichmann RIMS Rocket coil to a Hop Rocket I'd acquired years ago. I'm hoping the additional power and direct contact nature of the RIMS will reduce rise time when needing to raise mash temps.
2. The other significant design change impacts the boil. While natural gas is available in parts of Florida, it's not super common like it is other places. I could have gone with propane but they can be noisy and there’s always the risk of running out mid boil. I decided to just go 100% electric since I was already upgrading the RIMS to 240v anyway. In this case, I went with a 5500w ripple element from Brew Hardware. 

Both of these design changes impacted my control panel. The old control panel was too small to hold everything I needed so I dismantled in order to reuse as many components as possible. I added controls for the BK plus higher amperage SSRs and the addition of contactors for the 240v circuits.  

One thing I forgot to mention re 2.0, the control panel hanging off the side of the stand seemed a little weird. It was in a good position most of the time, but sometimes it was awkward to reach. The panel on 3.0 is mounted on its own stand in order to make this system as flexible as possible. So if I need the panel in a different position on start-up versus during the boil, I can position it where needed rather than attached to the stand.  

Panel design is inspired by The Electric Brewery design, but a little more basic/simple. In fact, it uses a few parts I ordered from The Electric Brewery shop, including the heatsink, 40amp SSRs, and contactors. One of the biggest visual differences between mine and The Electric Brewery design is I'm not using panel mount receptacles for my power connections. Instead, I'm just dropping power cords with cord-end receptacles. Most cords are about 9' long, but the pump cord is a little longer because the cord on my March pump is pretty short.

As for the stand itself, as I mentioned I wanted to keep the footprint small, similar to 2.0. I also didn't want the issues I described above with trying to fill the HLT when it was positioned way up high on a top tier. I started doing some googling and came across a design that I was pretty familiar with, Morebeer's Tippy Dump. The Tippy Dump is really cool as the MT is held in a cradle. At the end of a brew session you grain out by simply pulling a pin and tipping the MT to dump out all the spent grain; no lifting required. I wasn't interested in trying to recreate a tippy dump mechanism, but I was very interested in the overall layout/orientation. The primary difference between it and my 2.0 system is that on the Tippy Dump, the HLT is located below the MT, meaning you have to have a pump to sparge at the end of the mash (I fly sparge). When I first built 1.0 I only had a single March 809 pump. I've since acquired two other pumps: 1.) a Little Giant 3-MD-MT-HC that I'm almost ashamed to say how little I paid for, and 2.) a Spike Flow pump that I won at The Beer Nut's Beehive Brew-Off as a Best of Show prize. Since there are no shortage of pumps in my brewery, I decided to go with an orientation similar to the Tippy Dump and put the HLT at the very bottom. 

The top tier on the 3.0 stand is for the MT and it's positioned 31.25" inches from the ground (including the caster height). The middle tier is for the BK and it is positioned 24.75" inches from the ground. This may be on the tall side for some brewers, but I'm about 6'5" so I don't have any issues reaching into the MT or BK. However, it's worth noting Morebeer's Tippy Dump includes a built-in step for shorter brewers. The bottom tier is for the HLT and it's 6.25" inches from the ground. Both pumps, the RIMS, and my counterflow chiller are mounted to the frame below the BK.

Other design elements that I wanted to mention:

• All steel tubing is 14 gauge. 1.0 used 16 gauge tubing which held up fine, but I found the thicker 14 gauge was easier to weld for a hobby welder like myself.  
• The base and uprights are 2" square tubing while the rest is is 1.5" (e.g. shelves, pump mounts, etc).
• I decided to try getting a little fancier on some elements. For example, rather than basic 90 and 45 degree through cuts, I incorporated some 22.5 degree notched cuts. This results in beveled outer corners for the top two tiers, minimizing the risk of catching a hip on the corner when you're maneuvering around the stand. I also tried to keep open tube ends to a minimum, so there aren't many tubing plugs. I'm hoping this reduces the chances of the steel rusting in the humid Florida environment.
• The top and bottom tiers use a sheet of 1/4" thick marine board (King Starboard) for the surface of the shelf/tier. I used similar material on 2.0 and really liked it; it's waterproof, easy to fabricate with normal tools, and it's low friction so even a very full and heavy MT can be easily repositioned. The downside is it has a relatively low melting point, so I can't use this material on the BK tier. Instead, I'm using rubber neoprene strips that are adhered to the painted metal tubing that constitutes the main structure of the shelf/tier.
• I've incorporated a few guides that prevent the MT from sliding off its shelf. Same for the BK shelf but the rubber neoprene is pretty grippy, so the guides are more for positioning than to prevent sliding. Most guides are simply made from 3/8" steel rod welded to the frame. After painting the stand, the guides were topped with 3/8" vinyl caps to ensure they don't scratch my kettles.
• There's a lot going on under the BK shelf/tier; two pumps, RIMS Rocket, and counterflow chiller, all within a space ~18.5" square. It's pretty hard to describe all the various angles, mounts, etc. I'll just say that the pumps were mounted high enough to provide good clearance all around but low enough to simplify priming efforts. I had to play around a lot with positioning to keep everything accessible and protected. For example, I didn't want any fittings extending too far outside the frame because I'm relying on the stand to provide some protection when I'm moving it around my garage.

For those familiar with the BCS-460, I used to use two elements to heat the strike water during startup; one in the HLT, plus the HEX element. I changed my system startup process so now it will only use the HLT element. This is because utilizing both the HLT and the RIMS at the same time risks overloading the main 30amp circuit that I use for my brewery. It will take a little longer to get to strike temps, but only using one element at a time will be safer. I'm not anticipating this being an issue as I typically fill my HLT the night before brew day and have it start heating the strike water very early in the morning. I also added a new process to the BCS for the boil. To accomplish this, I added a temperature sensor to BK. The temp sensor will read the wort temp in the BK. If the temp is below boiling temps it will fire the element. As the temp approaches boiling the BCS will cycle the power (built in PID) off and on. It will do the same to maintain the boil temp.  I'm hoping the more precise control will help avoid boilovers by not overheating the wort. 

That's about it. I've taken it through a dry run using water and everything performed as expected. Next up will be the inaugural brew session on 3.0, so stay tuned. Cheers! Below are more pictures of the Brewstand 3.0.

Shrimp Ceviche

Another food recipe today. Pretty much anytime we see ceviche on the menu at a restaurant, we’ll order it. There was an awesome food truck and restaurant back in Utah called La Cevicheria that made some incredible ceviche. Carvor's Fish House/Jensen Brothers, one of our favorite local seafood places in Dunedin, FL makes ceviche every Sunday and it’s been a staple for us on Sunday pool days. I figured I’d try making my own and it turns out it’s really easy and a lot cheaper to make it yourself.

A couple notes, the first time I made this I used Roma tomatoes and I felt like there wasn’t enough liquid. The second time I made it I used “Flavor Bomb” cherry tomatoes and it was much better. So I’d recommend using something other than Roma, or perhaps one Roma along with another variety with more juice. This recipe uses lime juice to cook/cure the shrimp. If you’re not comfortable with that, you can blanch the shrimp in boiling water for 2 minutes, then put them in an ice bath. If you go this route, blanch them then cut up the shrimp, then marinate in lime juice. Lastly, use tostadas or a thickish tortilla chip. A thin tortilla chip is probably going to be too delicate to scoop up the ceviche.

Ingredients 

1 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (~10 limes)

1# shrimp (frozen or fresh), peeled, deveined, and tails removed 

3/4 to 1 cup tomatoes, diced (~2 smallish medium sized tomatoes)

1/4 to 1/3 cup cucumber, peeled and diced

1 jalapeño, diced

1/2 medium onion, diced 

1/4 to 1/3 cup cilantro, chopped 

Salt and pepper to taste

Process 

1. Wash the shrimp under cool running water and allow to drain. 
2. Cut shrimp into bite size pieces (I usually do thirds).
3. Juice limes.
4. In a glass bowl, combine shrimp and lime juice, cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes. Make sure the shrimp are fully submerged in the juice; I like to give it a stir halfway through.
5. Combine tomatoes, cucumber, jalapeño, onion, and cilantro in a bowl.
6. Drain the shrimp, reserving 3-4 tablespoons of the lime juice.
7. Add shrimp and reserved lime juice to vegetables and combine well.
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
9. Serve and enjoy.

Tomato Margarita

This cocktail may sound a little weird with the tomatoes, but it's actually really good. My wife was the first to try it at La Cava del Tequila in the Mexico Pavilion at Epcot years ago and was blown away by it. Between her and one of my daughters, I think they polished off four of them that day. We knew there was obviously tomatoes in it, but it also had this nice, really bright watermelon character and with lime juice it was so refreshing in Florida's heat and humidity.  

If you don't already know, Disney restaurants and bars will often share recipes if you ask. However, not all restaurants are owned by Disney and this appears to be the case with La Cava del Tequila.  In those cases they may not be willing to share some or even any recipes with park guests. This was essentially the case with the Tomato Margarita when we first asked. Each time we visited we asked for the recipe and were told they couldn't share it. We tried our best to replicate it on our own but we couldn't figure out the watermelon character (we tried puree, straight juice, etc.) and the tomato character always seemed too prominent. 

At some point they pulled the drink off the menu (maybe it'll come back in the future?) which was a bummer, but I think this was the key to us finally being let in on the secret.  One time a bartender who shall remain nameless, finally filled us in with the recipe below. The hardest part may be finding a good watermelon liqueur. You do not want to use the artificially flavored sour watermelon liqueur garbage.  If you can't find a good one, it's really easy to make your own.  I've included the recipe I used below, but definitely don't use the "pucker" stuff. For the cherry tomatoes, use your favorite. We used both heirloom cherry tomatoes and some of the extra sweet hybrids and they all worked well.

Tomato Margarita Recipe

2 oz Teremana Tequila Blanco 

2 oz Watermelon liqueur (not sour watermelon liqueur)

1oz lime juice

5 cherry tomatoes 

1 oz agave syrup (1/2oz for less sweet)

~1 cup ice

Blend until mostly smooth but don’t over blend to the point that all the ice turns to water.

Optionally, add a dash of gum powder while blending. This is available in better cooking stores and on Amazon and will help prevent separation. IME it will separate without it, but you can meditate it a bit by stirring it ... but use gum powder if you have it.

Watermelon Liqueur Recipe

Basically what you're doing is creating a sweetened watermelon tincture. This is one of those cases where a slightly overripe melon can be the best choice to get the strongest watermelon character. You really don't care about texture so it's fine if it's a little mushy. Seeded tend to have more flavor and aroma than seedless, so that's something to consider as well, but I'd probably recommend removing as many seeds as possible before pureeing.

2 cups pureed watermelon

1 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar

2 cups vodka. 

Blend watermelon and sugar until sugar dissolves then combine with vodka in an airtight container for a week, and store in a cool dark place. The alcohol should prevent any fermentation from occurring, but you could also put it in the fridge if you're worried.  After a week, strain out the solids and store it in a bottle (flip top bottles or an old liquor bottle work well). I got some ultra fine strainers off Amazon that did a great job of filtering out solids for tinctures. Most of the red from the watermelon will be filtered out so you'll be left with a straw colored liqueur. That said, you may see a little pink/red and could even get a little sediment if it lasts long enough. If you store it in a cool dark place, it should last for months before the flavor and aroma start to fade.

Cigarettes and Coffee Cocktail

This recipe comes from an awesome restaurant in Costa Mesa, CA named ARC. One of the really cool things about ARC is that pretty much everything is cooked over wood or in their wood-fired oven. All cocktails are also made by hand (you won't find any blenders here). One of my favorite cocktails at ARC is Cigarettes and Coffee. The hardest ingredient for me to find was the Fugit Gran Classico. It seems to be more available in the western US than anywhere else, but I would suggest using it rather than a substitute. Also, the smoke character was fairly intense with my Smoke bitters; I'd start at two dashes rather than five and add more if you want it more smoky.

1 1/2 oz. George Dickel Rye

1/2 Luxardo Amaro Abano

Barspoon of Gran Classico

5 Dashes Smoke Bitters (I used Australian Company Smoke Bitters)

5 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir ingredients in a short glass, add hand-cut ice or a single large cube.  

Garnish with a finely grated coffee bean. A microplane works best.

Smoked Candied Salmon

This is a great recipe I stumbled across years ago. I haven’t been able to find it again, so I’m not sure who to give credit to. This became a favorite of most of my kids, which says quite a bit for a fish recipe. Usually you’ll want to use a mild smoking wood like alder or a fruit wood. That said, I’ve even used hickory and really liked the results. Here it is as I make it:

You’ll need one 2.5 to 3# salmon filet

Marinade 
1c Brown sugar, packed
1c Water
3/4c Soy sauce
2 Garlic cloves — minced or finely chopped 
1t Ginger — fresh, chopped

Process 

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together in a non-reactive pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
2. Cut the fillet into half pound sized pieces. Put the salmon in a non-reactive container (plastic, glass, zip-lock bag) and add the cooled marinade. Let the salmon marinate for 48 hours in the fridge.
3. When you are ready to cook, bring your smoker up to temp…if your smoker can do it, shoot for 180F, otherwise go with 220-230F.
4. Add a generous amount of fresh ground black pepper to the salmon.
5. Place the salmon – skin down – on a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil in your smoker.
6. Cook until the salmon reaches 125F degrees in its thickest spot or until the edges are brown and the inside is opaque. I actually cook mine a little longer and render out more oil/fat. I basically cook it until the whole filet flakes easily with a fork … which I’m sure would really upset some true salmon connoisseurs, but that’s the way I like it. If your smoker can do 180F, feel free to increase the temps up to 220-230F after a bit.

Best BBQ Beans

I started writing this post ages ago and just realized I’d never published it. It looks like the Purple Smoke site isn’t up any longer, but this is still a great BBQ bean recipe.

I've been making these beans for years and they're pretty tasty. My wife proudly declares that she hated BBQ beans until she tried mine. That said, I can't take credit for this recipe because it's based on the World's Best BBQ Beans recipe from the Purple Smoke competition BBQ team. I stumbled across Purple Smoke's website years ago and saved their recipe for BBQ beans and their World's Best BBQ Sauce.  I've made a few changes to the BBQ beans recipe over the years, so it's deviated a bit from the original.  The last time I tried to find the Purple Smoke website, it appeared they let their domain registration expire, so it may be difficult to find the original and it's also the reason I figured I should document my version here. 

One note, with all the bacon fat, this probably isn't the healthiest dish around, so I wouldn't recommend eating it on a daily basis but it's good for special occasions. Here's the recipe as I've been making it:

2 - 16oz cans Red Kidney Beans, drained
2 - 16oz cans Butter Beans, drained
2 - 16oz cans Pork 'n' Beans, do not drain
1# Bacon cut crosswise into 1/4" strips
2 - Large Yellow Onions, diced
2 - Jalapeños, seeds and stems removed, diced
1c Ketchup
1c Your favorite BBQ Sauce
3oz Apple cider vinegar

2t Kosher salt 

3/4c Dark brown sugar, packed

4t Dry mustard 

Optional - If you have any leftover smoked meat, chop it and add up to a pound.

Process

Use a cast iron Dutch Oven or similar pot and cook the bacon over medium heat until crispy and the fat has been rendered.
Remove bacon and set aside on a paper towel reserving the drippings. 

Add chopped onion to the pot with the drippings and cook until translucent, about 5 mins.
Reduce heat to low and add chopped jalapeño.
Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
Bake at 300F in your oven, grill, smoker, it crock pot until it bubbles, about 1 hour.

Blue Hawaiian

Blue Hawaiian 

Serves 6

This was a favorite around our house back during Covid days when we’d do a Tiki Night after work on the occasional Friday. It’s based on the Trader Vic recipe and I thought it was a pretty good candidate for the Slushi. This is a sweeter cocktail, but I don’t think it’s overly sweet. Flavor-wise it’s very similar to a Pina Colada but with a striking blue color due to the Blue Curaçao. Use a good one like Drillaud or Giffard. For the rum, I like to use Hamilton 87, Plantation Silver, or Stades White.

9oz White/Silver Rum

3oz Blue Curacao

6oz Coco Lopez

18oz Pineapple Juice

1.5oz Lemon Juice

26.5oz Water

Add all ingredients to Slushi and set to Spiked setting. Alternatively, you can pre-mix and chill in the fridge. I wouldn’t recommend doing this more than 24 hours in advance as the quality can degrade. Pre-chilling will reduce the time required to freeze the drink. Once it reaches the desired consistency, serve an enjoy.

Derby Daiquiri

Derby Daiquiri

Serves up to 12

I usually prefer a traditional daiquiri over a blended one as the blended ones tend to be too sweet for my liking, but this one is pretty solid. It might actually be a little too tart for some folks. You can tweak the water, sugar, and/or lime juice amounts to adjust the acidity to your liking.

12oz Orange juice, preferably fresh squeezed 

6oz Lime juice, preferably fresh squeezed 

6oz Simple syrup 

18oz Light rum - I tend to gravitate towards Jamaican rum, but any silver/white rum will work

22oz Water

Add all ingredients to Slushi and set to Spiked setting. Alternatively, you can pre-mix and chill in the fridge. I wouldn’t recommend doing this more than 24 hours in advance as the quality can degrade. Pre-chilling will reduce the time required to freeze the drink. Once it reaches the desired consistency, serve an enjoy.

Frozen Painkiller

New category on my blog, Slushi Recipes! My wife and kids surprised me with a Ninja Slushi for my birthday, so I figured I’d start cataloging recipes that we’ve enjoyed. It can take a little trial and error on some of the recipes, especially the spiked drinks as too high of alcohol can prevent the drink from freezing. I may tweak the recipes in this category from time to time as I work on dialing them in.

Frozen Painkiller

6 Servings

24oz Unsweetened pineapple juice

6oz Orange juice 

6oz Coco Lopez

13oz Dark Jamaican rum

15oz Water (fill to max line)

We love this recipe. Whenever possible, I like to use fresh juices. That said, I usually use Dole canned pineapple juice. Several folks have said this is the best painkiller they’ve ever had. For the rum, we’ve really enjoyed Pussers, Hamilton, Doctor Bird, etc. It’s kind of hard to go wrong. If you’ve never used Coco Lopez before, it can separate a little and solidify in the can. I find it helps to submerge the can in hot water for 10 or so minutes, then stir to make sure it’s well mixed.

Add all ingredients to Slushi and set to Spiked setting. Alternatively, you can pre-mix and chill in the fridge. I wouldn’t recommend doing this more than 24 hours in advance as the quality can degrade, especially if using fresh juices. Pre-chilling will reduce the time required to freeze the drink. Once it reaches the desired consistency, serve an enjoy.