I love the roasted grain flavors, the mild, chug-worthy weight and reddish-black color of a good English porter, like those from Samuel Smith's, Fuller's and St. Peter's.
Gin is essentially a clear distilled grain spirit flavored with various "botanicals," the most prominent of which is juniper.
The balance could be a grain spirit, coloring, flavoring or even sugar.
This Scandinavian clear grain spirit is flavored with caraway seed and, depending on the recipe, with spices such as cardamom, cumin, coriander, fennel or dill.
A quick primer for the uninitiated: Gin, as it's known today, is in essence flavored vodka -- 100% neutral grain spirits flavored with a variety of herbs, spices and botanicals.
Along with spent grain, both flavors also contain almonds, oats, puffed quinoa, brown rice and ground flax.
Less successful was the paella, traditionally made with short-grain rice, but here made with long grain, elegantly flavored with saffron but undercooked.
Spelt may not top most must-order lists, but Boglione's lasagnette, its finespun noodles made from the grain, combines flavors of burrata, fresh tomato, and pesto so bright it's like summer on a plate.
But after whipping up a batch of diluted grain alcohol flavored with juniper berry concentrate for about 40 curious students at a Moonshine University class in Louisville this winter, Colin Blake celebrated the end of Prohibition.
Still, it came perched atop a mound of fine risotto, creamy but with a perfect bit of resistance in the grains, subtly flavored with saffron.
