MxMo Local Flavor: Bridgetown Shamble

Thanks to Kevin at Save the Drinkers for hosting this round of Mixology Monday.  The topic this time around is local flavor, which I’m expecting to be represented pretty strongly, considering the drink blogging populace of the Pacific Northwest.

Walking through the suburban streets of North Portland, there are a lot of places to grab a quick bite.  There’s the Mock Crest Tavern, where you can get a Blues Bird and a cheap beer, or the Flavour Spot, with their infamous 9-piece bacon waffle, and let’s not forget King Burrito… well, let’s forget the horrible indigestion it can cause (but is so worth it).  But the best place to eat here is about 1 to 8 feet from the ground.

Everything grows here… well, okay, citrus has a bitch of a time, but that’s what clay pots and greenhouses are for.  But if there’s anything that seems to represent Oregon best, it’s the rich abundance of berries.  Everywhere you go, it seems, there are brambles just waiting to be picked.  Little children walk around the streets with rich purple stains on their hands and mouths, and little baskets holding whatever couldn’t fit in their tummies.  The most famed of Oregon’s Berries is the Marionberry, coming from Marion County.  Unfortunately, it’s just a bit late in the season for these jewels of the vine to hit my local New Seasons, so I had to suffice with some good old McMinnville Blackberries.

But what to pair them with that represents local flavor?  Well, you can’t move an inch in Portland without hitting a brewpub or distillery, so the hard part wasn’t really finding something local but choosing something local.  My eyes quickly darted to a 6 pack of BridgePort Brewery Haymaker, an extra pale ale known around these parts as Liquid Sunshine.

With my yammering on about Portland, of course I’m going to have to add something from House Spirits to the line, and naturally I fall to Aviation Gin for that endeavor.  So, with the combination of these, and a few other components becomes my Bridgetown Shamble.

Bridgetown Shamble

• 1 1/2 oz Aviation Gin
• 1/2 oz Cane Syrup
• Bridgeport Haymaker Extra Pale ale
• 6 Oregon Blackberries
• Grapefruit Bitters

Place Blackberries and Gin into a 10 oz. glass and muddle until all the berries have burst.  Add Cane Syrup and fill glass with cubed ice.  Pour beer into the glass, stir gently with a bar spoon, and dash aromatic grapefruit bitters on top.

It’s a touch on the sweet side, which I would normally cut with a lemon, but the beer adds a light hoppiness that balances it well.  Though, this could easily be served with a lemon wedge.  Next time, for sure.  Seeing as my wife just noted this as her favorite drink ever, there may be quite a few more next times, until the Haymaker runs out, that is.

Okay, now about the name.  Initially I was thinking I was so clever in naming my development the “Bridgetown Bramble“, but apparently some other joker beat me to the punch on that one.  Okay, well, it’s got Bridgeport beer in it, right?  How about the Bridgeport Bramble?  Well, as they say, great minds think alike.  So, since it is a sweetened (and fortified) beer combination, which makes it some sort of a Shandy… plus the Blackberry which is is denoted with Bramble… yes, the Bridgetown Shamble! Yes, my college english classes is finally paying off.

Tagged as: aviation gin, Beer, blackberry, bramble, Gin, portland, shandy