For the last decade, I’ve been brining my Thanksgiving turkeys in champagne. The technique has produced delicious, consistent results from campsites in Big Sur, California, and Baja, Mexico—and in everything from frying oil to pellet grills to standard home ovens. To prove champagne’s efficacy in producing a juicy, tender bird, I tested a champagne brine against a typical water-based one.

Last weekend, I drove over to our local supermarket in Bozeman, Montana, and picked up two of their cheapest $2.99-a-pound turkeys, as close in weight to each other as I could find. I wanted to design this experiment I wanted to design this experiment in a way that controlled for as many variables as possible and set up a worst-case scenario, in which the brine would be the only flavor factor in the roasted turkey.

Turkey is a difficult bird to cook. Not only are turkeys large—each of the birds I bought was 14 pounds—but they also contain both light and dark meat. Tender, more exposed meat in the breast will cook faster than the tougher, tucked-away meat in the legs and thighs, which creates a significant risk of overcooking the white meat while you wait for the dark stuff to come up to temperature. That dries out the breasts and results in the chewy, flavorless bites of turkey we’ve all come to associate with Thanksgiving.

Why Brine a Turkey?

Salt breaks down the proteins in meat, making the texture more tender. At the same time, a brine can help infuse a bird with flavor, and adding liquids can help keep it moist while cooking.

There are two main methods of brining a turkey: wet and dry.

A dry brine involves rubbing the outside and cavity of a turkey with kosher salt, dried herbs, and spices. It draws moisture out of the meat, where it mixes with the salt, which is then transported back into the meat as the moisture is reabsorbed from the surface. Dry brining. produces a crispy skin and takes less effort than a wet brine, but it also struggles to fully infuse all parts of a big turkey with moisture and flavor.

To make a wet brine, dissolve kosher salt in boiling water, along with fresh aromatics like fruit peels, garlic, and herbs. You then submerge the turkey in the liquid at room temperature, and and place it in the refrigerator or outdoors if it’s cold enough for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours. This bath permeates all parts of the meat with salt, breaking down those proteins and infusing flavor throughout the turkey. Pat the bird dry and let it drain, then roast. Don’t worry: lots of this liquid remains present during the cook, adding steam and the additional moisture and flavor it brings to an otherwise dry oven or grill.

How Does Champagne Affect a Turkey?

Brining a turkey in champagne does three things. Alcohol helps tenderize meat by breaking down collagen. Champagne’s mild fruit flavors also infuse the meat, pairing well with turkey itself along with the herbs, vegetables, and stuffing you use for seasoning and sides. Plus, the champagne helps create flavorful drippings you can use to make a better gravy. Finally, champagne is acidic. That acid is yet another tenderizer that leads to a flavorful roast turkey.

There’s no reason to use anything other than the cheapest champagne you can find. The less subtle flavors and greater acidity will actually work better than the nice stuff. I used André Brut simply because, at $7.39 a bottle, it was the most affordable stuff on the shelves at my grocery store. AndrĂ© comes from California and not the champagne region of France and cannot technically be called champagne, it does the job just fine.

How Do You Wet Brine a Turkey?

First, make sure you don’t buy a pre-brined turkey. This should be prominently labeled on the packaging, or is something you should ask your butcher about if you’re buying a bird straight from a meat counter. The words, “kosher,” “enhanced,” or self-basting,” can also be understood to mean pre-brined.

You can find pre-made brining kits for turkeys which contain measured portions of salts, spices, and herbs that you just add to boiling water. But fresh ingredients are always going to taste better, and making your own brine allows you to to tailor it to your own unique tastes.

The most important step is dissolving salt in water. To do that, you just need to start with a ratio of four parts of water to one part kosher salt. This will give us a base brine to which we can add our champagne or water later. Bring that water to a boil, pour in the salt, let it return to a boil, then turn the heat off and let the solution cool to room temperature. You don’t want to submerge a bird in hot water; doing so can lead to bacteria growth.

For this taste test, I kept the brine simple. To that base brine, I just added orange and lemon peels, garlic cloves, peppercorns, and some chopped-up sage and bay leafs. Once that’d cooled, I placed the turkeys in a brining bag, rested them in their foil roasting trays to support the weight and catch any leaks, then poured additional water on one turkey and champagne over the other until each was fully submerged. When you add enough water (or champagne) to fully submerge the turkeys and further dilute your brine, you should end with a salt-to-water ratio of around 1:16.

The only variable here is that one turkey was submerged in brine and water, and the other was submerged in brine and champagne. It took five bottles of champagne to fully submerge one of the turkeys. I simply put the other bird under a cold kitchen sink tap in its brining bag, and didn’t measure how much water it took to fully cover it.

You can (and should!) add more stuff to your brine. Ingredients from Worcestershire sauce to chicken broth, herbs, and spices are all common, and will all add flavor to your end result. Again, I tried to keep this cook as simple as possible so nothing else was working to mask the effect of the different liquids.

What Cooking Methods Work with a Champagne Brine?

The answer to that is simple: Every method I’ve tried works well with a champagne brine. When I prepare a turkey in camp, I prefer to use a propane-fueled fryer, simply because it’s the easiest thing to transport and use outdoors. If you’re frying, just take extra care to fully dry the bird, inside and out, before sticking it in the hot oil. The wet brine should help ensure the turkey is defrosted, and can be transported to a campsite or patio in a small cooler or lidded five-gallon bucket.

At home, I prefer to use a pellet grill due to the controlled level of moisture present in quality wood pellets. But I’ve also cooked champagne-brined turkey on my Big Green Egg using lump charcoal with excellent results.

For this cook, with the goal of testing champagne’s effectiveness in the worst possible circumstances, I simply used the ovens in my kitchen. I pre-heated both ovens to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (without any convection), filled the cavities with wedges of the leftover fruit, brushed a stick of melted butter over the top of each, and baked them until done.

Prior to 2008, the USDA recommended cooking turkeys until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reached 180 degrees Fahrenheit. But that recommendation was updated in 2008 to 165 degrees. That lower temperature should result in a moister bird, but I cooked both turkeys through to 180 degrees to account for a worst-case scenario.

The mad scientist in me was pleased when the probes in both birds registered 180 degrees at the exact same time. That meant both ovens were heating consistently with each other, an indication that I’d managed to remove one more variable from the result.

Can a Champagne Brine Really Produce a Juicier Bird?

I pulled the turkeys out of the oven, and rested them on my stove top for 15 minutes before carving. One difference was immediately apparent: the skin on the water-brined bird was noticeably crisper, and more deeply browned. My theory there is that the champagne broke down the skin on its bird that much more. While irrelevant to flavor, this did represent less than ideal presentation. If oven cooking a champagne-brined bird, it may be a good idea to add some honey to the melted butter before you brush it on the bird, which should help its skin crisp up and look a little darker.

But that one downside disappeared as soon as I sliced into the breasts. There, the water-brined bird displayed noticeably more separation between muscle fibers and was visibly less juicy. Biting into that water-brined bird took more effort, and the bite contained less flavor.

In contrast, the champagne-brined turkey was visibly juicy, with no separation between muscle fibers. The bite was tender, and was noticeably more flavorful.

While the dark meat in both birds was similar in appearance, the tenderness and flavor was again far superior on the champagne-brined turkey.

I ended up throwing out the water-brined turkey, but carved and saved the champagne-brined one. I’ll make a turkey sandwich for lunch after finishing this article. Even with such a basic cooking method, in which no additional flavoring from herbs or spices was added, the champagne brine produced a turkey I’d be happy serving to dinner guests. Its level of tenderness was as good as I expect from better equipment and more elaborate recipes, and its nice, but somewhat bland flavor could have been masked with a good gravy.

Can You Serve a Champagne-Brined Turkey to Children?

As with other cooking methods that include wine, beer, cider, or liquor, the alcohol cooks off with temperature and time. There should be no alcohol content remaining in the final dish.

Can You Taste the Champagne?

Flavor-wise, there were some faint notes of fruitiness in the meat of the champagne-brined turkey that weren’t present in the water-brined one. But that could be explained as much by the champagne better transporting the flavor of the orange and lemon peels into the juicier meat as it could by anything remaining of the booze. I certainly couldn’t detect any strong flavor of champagne or alcohol.

By spending $37 on champagne, I meaningfully increased the quality of my Thanksgiving turkey—without relying on my preferred cooking methods or added seasoning. Consider a champagne brine as an additional step to your favorite recipe. Paired with a superior cooking method like grilling or frying, a champagne-brine can help elevate your results to new levels.

The post The Secret to a Perfectly Juicy Thanksgiving Turkey? Cheap Champagne. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Since 2020, Yassine Diboun has made it a point each year to black out one square on his calendar with a Sharpie.

It’s a gesture to signify that on this day, typically set around the winter solstice, this 45-year-old ultrarunner and coach from Portland, Oregon, won’t run during the day, as he does most every other day of the year. Instead, he’ll watch a movie with his daughter, Farah, or cook a meal with his wife, Erica, eagerly waiting for night to fall. Because that is when the action starts.

Diboun has become a fixture in Portland’s trail running scene, a and one of the most electric and positive forces in the U.S. ultrarunning scene today. He is also an athlete in active substance addiction recovery since 2004.

And here, at the confluence of endurance and recovery, is where Diboun enacts an annual tradition in Portland called . From sundown to sunup, Diboun runs through the evening, covering a route that connects city streets with trails in Forest Park while accompanied by dozens of other runners.

On December 9, Diboun will start his fourth-annual Move Through Darkness run. It may exceed 70 miles. It may not. That’s not really the point, though in some sense it is, for the more miles he runs, the more pledge-per-mile dollars he gains to funnel into future recovery programs, the very support structures that saved his own life two decades prior.

A Personal Mission

In 2009, Diboun and his wife moved to Portland, where he pursued a career in coaching. One of the first things Diboun did upon arrival was to connect with the recovery community, which led him to , the largest recovery support center in the United States.

Diboun’s personal history of substance addiction is circuitous and complicated—documented extensively in , , interviews, and others—but what’s most important to know is that it led him down a path that wasn’t his own. Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) and the 12-step program threw him a lifeline and he white-knuckled it to shore, reinforced by commitments to a plant-based diet and a healthy dose of body movement. (That’s code for running a ton of miles.)

Such discipline brought him to the highest levels of ultrarunning. He’s a four-time finisher of the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run (once in the top 10), a three-time finisher of the H.U.R.T. 100, in Hawaii, and he represented the U.S. at the IAU Trail World Championships in 2015. These accolades sit beside countless ultra wins and podiums.

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His success story prompted Brent Canode, executive director of the Alano Club or Portland, to reach out to Diboun in 2018 with a proposition. Diboun had, by then, teamed up with mountain athlete Willie McBride, to start in 2012. The business offers group functional fitness programs, youth programs, and personal guidance to get people outdoors and on trails.

Under Canode’s leadership, the Alano Club just launched (TRG)—a CrossFit-style facility offering courses for those in recovery, and Canode saw running as a natural extension of this program. He asked Diboun to spearhead a new running portion of the gym. For Canode, though models like the 12-step program were widely available and proven effective, he found the diversity of options for community lacking beyond that.

“What we learned was that a lot of folks don’t attend 12-step programs,” Canode says. “They haven’t found a connection anywhere else, and that’s a matter of life or death for a person in recovery.”

Together, the two started regular informal runs called the Recovery Trail Running Series, which evolved into a more formalized wing of the gym: Run TRG. This program quickly took off, offering evening group runs, outings that would often end in post-run dinners and fun gatherings. The groups grew bigger each week.

“We cultivated this community for anybody in or seeking recovery from substance addiction, and it really picked up some good momentum,” Diboun says.

When the pandemic shut everything down in March 2020, including The Recovery Gym and its new Run program, regulars instantly lost the group’s connection. Many relapsed and started using substances again. A few turned to suicide, including a prospective coaching client for Diboun who had met with him just one week prior.

“I know from personal experience that life can get too overwhelming at times and you get too stressed or overwhelmed and you can’t see anything,” Diboun says. “You can’t see any hope, so you just live recklessly, helplessly. In extreme cases, life can feel not worth living anymore.”

A Resilient Collaboration

While running one evening by headlamp, Diboun thought about the fragility of hope, the pandemic, the recent suicides, and the ever-increasing need for community. The combination of isolation and mental health decline, paired with an uptick in running popularity during the pandemic (Run TRG, once relaunched, tripled in size), created an opportunity for Diboun to leverage his visibility as both a decorated ultrarunner and someone vocal about his addiction history.

An idea was born: Move Through Darkness.

For one night, sundown to sunrise, he would organize a run to crisscross the city, connecting various trail systems and raising visibility of the mental health challenges entangled with isolation and addiction. It would take place around the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.

The initiative would serve three main purposes: First, it would be a personal pilgrimage for Diboun, a reminder of his own ongoing relationship with sobriety. Second, it would offer another way for those in recovery to come closer during difficult times. And third, the event would raise financial support for the which serves more than 10,000 people in recovery each year through mutual support groups like A.A., peer mentoring services, art programs, harm reduction services, and fitness-based initiatives like The Recovery Gym and Peak Recovery, Alano’s newest program, which provides free courses in split boarding, rock climbing, and mountaineering. Over the last eight years Alano has won four national awards for innovation in the behavioral health field.

Inaugural Success

December 2020 was the first-ever Move Through Darkness event. About 30 runners participated throughout the night, joining Diboun in various sections of his sinuous route. Given that the invitation was to run upwards of 100K through the night in some of the worst weather of the year, the turnout was impressive. The group eventually made their way to Portland’s Duniway Track to complete a few hours of loops, encouraged onward by music.

One of those runners that first year was Mike Grant, 47, from Portland. Grant has been in long-term recovery with substance addiction and understands the initial hurdles of getting out there. During the event, Grant completed his first ultra-distance run by covering 50 miles. He hasn’t missed a Move Through Darkness run since.

This year, he’ll be joining again, in large because of Diboun.

“You hang out with Yassine for any length of time, and the next thing you know you’re running further than you ever have before,” Grant says. “He’s one of those people you just feel better when you’re around.”

The Move Through Darkness route is roughly the same every year, but it always starts and ends at the Alano Club, located in Portland’s Northwest neighborhood. This first year, his daughter, Farah, ran with him from Duniway to the Alano Club, which was a particularly special moment to share.

The fundraising component is a pledge-per-mile model, where you can pay a certain dollar amount for every mile Diboun will cover. All funds go to support the Alano Club, specifically the Recovery Toolkit Series. Other recovery-focused gyms are increasingly available nationwide, but The Recovery Gym is the only CrossFit affiliate in the U.S. designed from the ground up, exclusively for individuals in recovery.

Each week, TRG offers six to eight classes free of charge to anyone in recovery. Every coach holds credentials in both CrossFit instruction and peer mentoring for substance use and mental health disorders. An original inspiration for Run TRG was the , a nonprofit established in 2015 to provide running community reinforcement for those affected by addiction and substance addiction.

The Mental Health Crisis

, 29 percent of U.S. adults have been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives—the highest rate since such data was measured. Suicides in the U.S. reached all-time highs in 2022, —about 135 people per day lost to self-inflicted death. In 2022, 20.4 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with substance abuse disorder (SUD).

Oregon, specifically, is rated number one in the country for illicit drug use. In 2020, Oregon had the , while ranking last in treatment options.

Canode says that, after 40 years of researching addiction and effective recovery, the single most important aspect of recovery success is authentic connection to a like-minded community. That’s why both Canode and Diboun are building an all-hands-on-deck approach to recovery through running, to strengthen connections through movement.

“In recovery, we know how to grind,” he says. “We are naturally great endurance athletes. We also know how to consistently move through darkness, which is especially true in the beginning of someone’s recovery journey. It’s often not rainbows and unicorns and lots of positivity. It’s a grind. It’s grueling.”

Annalou Vincent, 42, a senior production manager at Nike, is one of the many people who have reached out to Diboun from all over the Portland community.

“Finding Yassine and Run TRG saved my life,” she says. After starting a running practice in her thirties, she started feeling better and decided to question decisions like drinking alcohol. She eventually dropped booze and became a regular at the Run TRG. Vincent has worked closely with Yassine to develop and promote Run TRG, and has joined Diboun for various legs of Move Through Darkness over the years.

“I can’t imagine my life or my sobriety without running and this program, says Vincent. “Over the years I’ve seen it change the lives of many others. Move Through Darkness is an extension of that. This program and others like it are saving lives.”

Gratitude Is a Verb

Willie McBride, Diboun’s business partner, supports Move Through Darkness each year and has witnessed its evolution and impact.

“I think people really connect with this project because they understand those dark parts of life, and how challenging they can be. Darkness comes in all different forms,” he says. “But also the very tangible act of running all night, literally putting their body out there—coming together as a group sheds light right into that darkness.”

Diboun is reminded daily of his life’s work, to remain sober and offer his endurance as a gift to others, even when it gets difficult.

“I’m coming up on 20 years sober, but I’m not cured of this,” he says. “This is something I need to keep doing and stay on the frontlines.”

With record rainfall aiming for Oregon in December, this Saturday night calls for a 58 percent chance of rain showers, with the last light at 5 P.M. and the first light around 7 A.M. That’s potentially 14 soggy hours of night running. But this forecast doesn’t cause Diboun any concern. He’s used to it, used to running for hours in the dark, used to being drenched. He’s faced that long tunnel and knows that there’s always light at the end, as long as you keep trudging forward, and best when together.

“You keep passing it on,” he says. “You keep giving it away, in order to keep it. Gratitude is a verb.”

The post Running Through the Night to Confront the Darkness of Substance Addiction appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

The brisk bite of autumn air always adds some pep to my step on my morning runs, but it also puts me in the mood for apples, which are just beginning to tumble off their branches. As we sink into fall, freshly-picked Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp and more begin popping up everywhere, from farmers’ markets to bakeries to hot apple cider stands. In that vein, ’tis the season to remember one of the world’s most delightful and overlooked spirits, apple brandy, whose golden glow and heady apple perfume makes it the perfect sip on brisk autumn evenings.

Apple spirits are everywhere from New York state to California to the Carolinas; a welcome, trendy drink that becomes even more profound if you know a little bit about its crucial and complicated heritage on this continent. The bitter history that follows makes today’s rich apple spirits all the more sweet.

The Potentially Dangerous History of Apple Jacking

America’s original “favorite drink” was not bourbon or rye like you’d expect, but apple cider. The apple tree was key for settlers who tamed the rugged North American continent. As most people know, Johnny Appleseed was not out distributing seeds of Granny Smiths or Pink Ladies, but rather tart, indigestible apples. Although they don’t sound particularly appealing, these apples were grown to produce cider, a godsend that was safer to drink than water, and both cheap and easy to make . As delicious as they are, typical “eating” apples that we enjoy as snacks make bland cider. Bitter apples may be inedible, but via fermentation and distillation, effuse aromas and flavors vastly more complex and beguiling than anything you’ll ever get from a piece of raw fruit.Ìę

Apple cider is best turned to hard alcohol using a dedicated pot still. But these weren’t common in the early centuries of this country, hence the funny-sounding technique known as jacking. Alcohol freezes at a lower temperature than water, thus, in winter, when cider is allowed to freeze outdoors, chunks of ice can be periodically removed from the vat. This leaves behind a liquid of even more concentrated alcohol.

Alas, the process of apple jacking lacks precision. While the hard spirit in applejack contains methanol, a dangerous chemical (think blindness, kidney failure), is removed during the responsible, modern distillation of today, that wasn’t always the case with jacking. And at the end of the 19th century, the degradations on the health of American drinkers (and general drunkenness) made applejack the major target of the rising temperance movement, whose ascendance led not only to but also to the destruction of of apple orchards, effectively killing the apple spirits industry.

Cider apples never came back. In their place, farmers planted grain—cheaper, quicker to grow, and easier to distill—giving rise to our dominant domestic whiskey industry. The destruction of the American orchard had a cost beyond fruit. Lost too was the cornucopia of genetic material contained in apple trees that had adapted from their European roots to American soils and climates.

The Best Apple Brandy 

The original and, in my opinion, best apple brandy is called Calvados, which comes from Normandy in the northwest corner of France. Here, ancient apple (and pear) orchards thrive, and scores of different varieties are blended to create a complex, vivid spirit. Oak aging is key, as unaged apple spirits can be a bit harsh. Allowing a raw apple spirit to mature for years in a barrel, can make the difference between tart, unripe fruit and apple pie. Look for Calvados producers like Adrien Camus, Lemorton, and Roger Groult for examples of addictively good spirits. They still have a little bite, but also the warm, familiar, comforting flavor of baked apple. Longer-aged spirits are more expensive, but also more rich and complex.

Because of the loss of cider trees, a fair bit of American apple brandy comes from eating apples, which makes for a simpler, less exciting spirit. That said, America’s bourgeoning apple brandies are well worth trying. New Jersey’s , dating from 1698 and the oldest continuously run distillery in the country, is still the largest producer. Out west look for wonderful apple brandies from old-school distillers like Oregon’s Clear Creek and California’s St. George Spirits. But all over the country, newer craft distillers are also getting into the game. Black Dirt Distilling, Copper & Kinds, and Neversink from New York’s Hudson Valley make very flavorful stuff. Outfits like Saint Paul Farms from North Carolina are already producing good spirits, but also growing thousands of new, bitter apple trees whose fruit will be perfect for cider. Follow these spirits over the next few years—they will only get better and better.

So, as the weather turns colder and we all become more contemplative, warm yourself up with a little apple brandy and take in not only the beautiful present autumn moment but also the apple’s deep .

How to Drink Apple Brandy

For good quality, I recommend aged Calvados. I love to drink it neat in a little spirits tasting glass, tumbler, or snifter. If it’s over proof or simply tastes too strong, it’s perfectly acceptable to add a splash of water to tame the alcohol.Ìę

Calvados is also great in cocktails or even just mixed with a little soda water or tonic. For a simple, yet delicious fall Calvados cocktail, I might recommend an apple blossom. This version I adapted from the recipe on Difford’s Guide, which is adapted from the version in Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide, 1972 edition.Ìę

Apple Blossom Cocktail

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• 2 oz Calvados or Apple Brandy
• 1.5 oz Red Vermouth (I prefer Dolin) 
• 2 dashes orange bitters 
• 1 dash of saline solution or a tiny pinch of salt 

Directions

1. Stir all the ingredients together in a pitcher filled with ice and strain into a chilled cocktails glass.Ìę

The post Apple Brandy Used to be Dangerous. Here’s Why. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

As we dip our toes into fall (or go kicking and screaming), we prepare ourselves for crisp leaves, weather, and beer. There’s no better way to enter the season than taking a long hike and celebrating afterwards with a good brew.ÌęNotice how we said good, not expensive. Sometimes the simple cheap beers are exactly what we need after a tough excursion. Nothing too heavy or fancy, but a faithful beverage you can count on for exactly what it is – cheap and tasty.Ìę

“Cheap” means something different for everyone, so for the sake of our rankings, we capped the price of these picks at $10 and under per six pack.Ìę

, $5.99

One of the best things about this American lager is that you can drink a few without feeling too full or bloated. Rolling Rock is a cheap beer that doesn’t have a ton of bitterness and is light with a subtly sweet aftertaste – nothing bold or loud about the flavor. It’s also refreshing, which is great after trudging up and down mountains all afternoon.Ìę

, $6.99Ìę

If you want a pop of flavor – and nostalgia – to wake you up after your hike, an old-fashioned Schiltz might be a good choice. This cheap beer is considered by many fans as a meal drink, best enjoyed with a burger or some other savory meat to cut the citrusy tones. The one downside is that Schiltz can be hard to find (curses!) so scoop it off grocery shelves where you can.Ìę

, $7.99

This lager has an even balance of bitter and tart, making it extremely chuggable while not overpowering. The clean finish and light body make Montucky a crisp, snackable beer that doesn’t fill you up. Plus, the beverage company donates 8% of their regional distribution profits back to local charities, so you can feel good cracking a second one.Ìę

Our Editor’s Picks 

$9.99Ìę

“I sipped these cheap beers throughout my first summer living in Tennessee and was constantly asked what my little yellow can was. It’s technically a pilsner, but the Tiny Bomb has a surprising, subtle sweet note underneath notes of malt and wildflower honey.” – Mallory Arnold, șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű associate editor 

, $6.27

“I once arrived to an Airbnb on Cape Cod after a sweltering 6-hour journey from NYC and found a six pack of High Life in the refrigerator. Anything cold and beer flavored would have tasted good at that point, but it tasted better than good at the time. I got the same AirBnB for the next two summers and found a much needed six pack of High Life in the fridge both times. I’m a long way from the cape these days but whenever I want a taste I can get it literally anywhere that sells beer.” șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű editor

, $9.99

“You don’t have to be a golfer to appreciate an ice cold light beer after working up a thirst outdoors. I reach for this cream ale from Back Forty Beer Co. in Birmingham, AL. Pulled from an icy cooler, it is light and smooth with just enough bitter bite to remind you that you’re drinking a craft beer. It’s perfect after an afternoon adventure straight from the can.” – Mary-Frances Heck, șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű senior brand director

The post Our Favorite Post-Hike Cheap Beers for Fall appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Yeti is releasing the ($60) this fall. So, of course we had to get our hands on one to test. The Rambler is made with stainless steel, has double-wall insulation, and is described as nearly indestructible. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the shaker is quite simply a Yeti tumbler with a new cobbler shaker lid. The lid is compatible with other Yeti cups with the same diameter lip, and the shaker lid is sold separately for $25 if you already have a cabinet full of Ramblers.

Though it’s handy to pop the lid on whatever Yeti cup you have, this shaker reminds us of Mason jar shakers and other retro-fitted mixers that don’t necessarily reinvent the wheel. In our experience, however, Yeti doesn’t typically release products that don’t prove to be extremely tough, useful, or both, so we were game to test it out.Ìę

Why a Cocktail Shaker?

Bartenders and cocktail geeks are obsessed with the finer points of barware, and I can think of no item that is more talked about or controversial than the shaker. Most bartenders swear by a Boston shaker, essentially two tins (or, gasp, a tin, and a pint glass) that fit together, creating an open space for the ingredients and ice to build lots of momentum between smashes at either end. Alternatively, a Cobbler shaker is a three-piece style found on most home bars and consists of a base tin, a sloped centerpiece containing a perforated strainer, and a small, sometimes-shot-size cap.

Not all cocktails need to be shaken (I’m looking at you, James Bond) but cocktail canon  dictates that drinks containing fruit juice, especially citrus juice, must be shaken. Shaking cocktails emulsified their ingredients for a rich, slightly creamy mouthfeel, extra-cold serving temperature, and perfect dilution. When the ingredients and ice knock back and forth against the metal tin, small pieces of ice break off and chill the drink as they melt, diluting strong liquor and sharp citrus juice into something beautifully delicious.Ìę 

Oftentimes, cocktail recipe directions will say to shake “until the outside of the shaker is frosty.” However, this isn’t really a good indicator of when a drink is ready because the metal walls of cocktail shakers vary in thickness and insulation.Ìę

If you’d asked me last week or last year about my favorite cocktail shaker, it was hands down the . First introduced to me by Food & Wine’s Executive Wine Editor when I oversaw testing for the magazine, and at the stunning price of $468, I can promise it looks incredible on a bar and mixes a very impressive drink. And it is out of reach for nearly everyone I know.Ìę

Yeti’s $60 cocktail shaker isn’t cheap, so I figured there was only one way to see if it was worth the price: a proper cocktail duel with the Match pewter shaker.Ìę

Putting the Yeti Rambler to the Test

The cocktail: Tommy’s Margarita (2 parts tequila: 1 part lime juice: 1 part agave syrup)

The ice: Cubes from my refrigerator’s ice maker

The rubric: Shake for 30 seconds, strain, measure for volume as an indicator of dilution and temperature. Finally, taste (somebody’s gotta do it).

Results

Dilution: Tied. The drinks poured out at identical volumes, with fewer small micro chips of ice on the surface of the Maker, indicating the ice stayed in bigger pieces and/or didn’t make it through the built-in strainer. There were more visible ice chips, and also more creamy, foamy swirl on the Yeti-shaken drink.

Temperature: Yeti. I used my trusty kitchen thermometer to temp each drink at the bottom of the glass, away from any ice chips floating on the top. It clocked the Maker margarita at 37 degrees Fahrenheit, which is how cold I keep my fridge, AKA “beer temp.” The Yeti got the marg down to 35 degrees and was noticeably colder on first sip.

Flavor: Yeti. While the drink ingredients, number of ice cubes, duration of shake, and glassware were identical, the colder temperature and creamier texture of the Yeti-shaken drink made the drink taste more refreshing and ultimately more delicious.

The takeaway: Yeti’s cocktail shaker is uniquely good at shaking up incredibly cold drinks thanks to the rock-hard metal that obliterates shaken ice cubes and insulated walls that keep the drink near freezing temps. If you already own a Rambler tumbler, the $25 shaker lid is a nice upgrade and the set would make a great gift, though it might look a little sporty on a beautifully curated home bar. But if you’re like us, you’d rather take cocktail hour outside anyway.

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How fast can you run a mile while chugging four beers? How about doing it while running with just one shoe?

Canadian beer-mile phenom Corey Bellemore ran an impressive 4:30.80 mile under those conditions on Saturday to win the in Chicago, coming up just short of his 2021 world record of 4:28.10. American Elizabeth Laseter won the women’s championship race in 6:03.75 to claim her first world title, but Shelby Houlihan, a 2016 U.S. Olympian who is under suspension for a doping violation, stole the show by breaking the women’s beer mile world record in an earlier heat with a stunning 5:43.81 effort.

What Exactly Is a Beer Mile?

Basically, it’s a mile race on a track in which each runner chugs a 12-ounce beer, runs one 400-meter lap, and repeats that three more times, a beer for each lap, as fast as possible—all without having it come back up, which is politely referred to as a “reversal of fortune.” The clock stops for each runner after the fourth lap is completed, unless they spew, when an additional fifth 400-meter penalty lap is typically required.

The Beer Mile World Classic—the de facto world championship of this quirky discipline—returned to the United States on July 1, after an eight-year hiatus of being held in international locales, with the deepest fields ever assembled. The event was hosted by Hope Academy, a private college-preparatory high school with a high-performance track and a view of the Chicago skyline.

RELATED: Should I Give Up Alcohol During Training?

In the championship races that were broadcast via livestream, more than 30 elite beer-chugging runners duked it out for world titles, a variety of records, and, of course, the glory of international bragging rights.

Although Bellemore was disappointed about not being able to take a legitimate shot at the world record, his effort was impressive, nonetheless. He went out hard with a blistering early pace, coming through the initial 400-meter in 60 seconds after chugging his first beer. He remained on record pace with a two-beer, 800-meter split of 2:06.

But one of his Adidas spiked racing shoes slipped off in the first 20 meters of the race when he collided with another runner, so he ran almost the entire race wearing just a sock on his left foot. His victory was never in question, nor was his impressive pace of chugging beers, but he slowed slightly on the final two laps and finished two seconds short of his record.

Bellemore, 28, has been the world’s most dominant beer mile runner for several years, having won five world titles since 2016. He owns a 3:57:42 personal best in an open mile and ran a 4:24 at the 2018 Beer Mile World Classic in Vancouver, British Columbia. That would have shattered the world record at the time, but he was disqualified for having slightly too much foam left.

How fast did Bellemore run? He actually ran about a 4:02 mile if you consider that he had chugged each beer in about four seconds then averaged 60.50 400-meter splits.

“I wish it went a bit better, but that’s all right. It is still great showing, and great to be among everyone here,” said Bellemore after winning his third straight world championship title. “I don’t like to reflect too much on what could have been, but I think the potential for the beer mile could go to 4:20. When that’ll happen, hopefully soon. I think the top end would be right under 4:20 or right at 4:20.”

American Chris Robertson, the 2017 and 2020 World Beer Mile Classic winner, was second in 4:54:15, followed by Australian Nick Finch (4:59:15), Sweden’s Jonas Andersson (5:00:82) and American Garrett Cullen (5:03:50). Team USA won the men’s team title, followed by Great Britain and Canada. ()

Laseter Wins Women’s Championship

This year’s stacked women’s field included hometown favorite Melanie Pozdol of Chicago, the defending champion of the event after being declared the winner (6:41:00) at the 2022 championships in Leuven, Belgium after two runners were disqualified ahead of her. Also running in the women’s championship were Bend, Oregon’s Allison Grace Morgan, a three-time Beer Mile World Classic winner and world-record holder (6:16.50), and Elizabether Laseter, of Austin, Texas, who was first across the line in the 2022 championship race but was disqualified on a chug zone technicality.

RELATED: American Women Dominate the 2022 World Beer Mile Title

Laura Riches of England set the pace on the first beer and a fast initial lap, but Laseter took command of the race on the second beer and never looked back. She ran away from the field, setting a huge personal best while surpassing Morgan’s official world record going into the event. Unlike many runners who try to pound the beers without stopping, Laseter uses a stop-and-start chugging method. Her splits broke down to roughly 72 seconds of beer chugging time (or an average of 18 seconds per beer) and running a 4:51 mile.

Grace Morgan, 40, finished as the runner-up in a new masters (40+) world record of 6:19:07, while Pozdol rounded out the podium in third (6:34.58) and American Kassandra Marin took fourth (6:39.27), making it a clean sweep for Team USA of the top four spots and securing another team world title. ()

Laseter, who competed collegiately for Johns Hopkins University, runs for the Bat City Track Club running club in Austin. She owns a 5:11 personal best in an open mile and has run a 2:48:58 marathon. But the 34-year-old food writer and photographer is also an exceptional beer chugger, a critical skill when it comes to running a beer mile for the podium.

“It always hurts, but it extra hurt this time,” Laseter said. “I had a blast. I love this event. I love my teammates. I love the community. I’m so thankful for this event and everyone who puts it on every year. I know a lot of work goes into it, and it gets better and better every year. “

Houlihan Sets New Women’s World Record

In the “Legends and Elites” division—speedy runners who weren’t considered fast enough to run in the championships flight—Team USA’s Bud Lightning (yes, that’s the name he entered at registration) dominated the race, clocking a 5:00:23 beer mile, a 17-second personal best that would have placed him fourth overall in the men’s championship heat. Former world-record holder Jim Finlayson (Canada) battled it out with Todd Rose (USA) for the 50+ beer mile world record. Finlayson came out on top, clocking a 5:44.10, with Rose finishing in 5:54.44. They are now the top two 50+ beer milers of all time.

But it was Houlihan, a 30-year-old suspended former Nike professional, who stole the show. She became the first woman in history to break the six-minute barrier, That’s roughly 1:18 of total drinking beer time and running a mile in roughly 4:25.

Houlihan, a 2016 U.S. Olympic in the 5,000-meter run who owns a 4:23.68 personal best in an open mile, is currently about two and a half years into a four-year suspension from track and field for a failed drug test in December 2020. Because of that, organizers said she was not eligible for the women’s championship race, although the World Beer Mile Classic is still working to develop a formal policy for athletes competing under suspension.

However, race organizers said the have never required athletes to test in order to have their results ratified. For more than 25 years, has relied on video evidence alone to prove legitimacy of a beer mile result and have it marked as “official” in the database. Thus, organizers said Houlihan’s time was world record eligible as she followed all rules outlined. Houlihan did not violate any rules regarding her ban and got pre-approvals ahead of the event by the required governing bodies.

“Honestly, it was really fun,” Houlihan said after her first competitive beer mile. “I think running past all the puke spots [from previous heats], though, was a little nerve-wracking. I was trying not to look at ’em. I had a great time and I just felt really good and everything kind of was clicking.”

Celebrity Non-Alcoholic Beer Mile

The Celebrity Non-Alcoholic (N.A.) Beer Mile heat featured a field of notable personalities all trying their hand at a beer mile for the first time. They drank Athletic Lite, Athletic Brewing’s 25-calorie non-alcoholic light brew that contains less than 0.5 percent ABV.

Elite masters marathoner and podcast host Ken Rideout led wire-to-wire, cruising a 6:50.12, less than a week after winning the Gobi March in Mongolia, a 155-mile stage race across the Gobi Desert. U.S. Rugby National Team member Carlin Isles took runner-up in 8:06.20.

There was a close battle for third on the final lap between TV personality Nev Schulman, sports analyst Cynthia Frelund, and comedian/actor Francis Ellis. In a sprint finish down the home stretch, Ellis barely edged out Schulman to finish third in 9:28.43. Schulman finished in 9:29.06, Frelund in 9:36.56, and Darren Rovell, sports business reporter for The Action Network, closed out the race with a time of 11:37.44.

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Bone broth may recall images of Gwyneth Paltrow, Instagram ads, and boring soup, but if you disregard the fad diets and social media antics, it can be a nutritious ingredient in summertime cocktails.Ìę

But First, a Bit About Bone Broth

Though trendy to the point of it being humorous, bone broth has many known benefits. It’s plentiful in minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. But most of bone broth’s claim to fame can be attributed to its collagen content.

Celebrity nutrition expert and New York Times bestselling author, says that collagen protein, commonly found in cuts of meat formerly part of connective tissue, is made up of essential amino acids.

“Specifically, glutamine and glycine,” Petrucci says. “Both have been linked to gut health. Glutamine, especially, can help repair the gut lining and improve digestion.”

When collagen is cooked, as in bone broth, it turns into gelatin, which is also extremely beneficial for gut health. But the tricky bit with bone broth is that many store-bought brands are packed with fillers and excess sodium. Petrucci recommends making your own.

“When making your bone broth, you want to use the healthiest ingredients possible. Look for the highest quality bones you can afford,” she says. “You can use the bones from just about any quality meat you like but try to be picky to ensure the most significant benefits—select bones with a lot of cartilage. Great choices include: beef, bison, chicken, duck, goose, lamb, pork, turkey, and venison.”

The best portions, she says, are the beef knuckles, joints, feet, and marrows. Chicken feet are also a great source of not only gelatin, but hyaluronic acid, which is excellent for keeping joints healthy.

But how much bone broth do you need to drink to reap its benefits? Petrucci recommends two cups daily. An easy way to incorporate it? Cocktails!

Yes, Cocktails!

I was admittedly hesitant when I first read about incorporating bone broth into a summer cocktail, but hear this: it works. If you like a savory, spicy, bloody mary, you might enjoy this cucumber melon cooler. It’s surprisingly refreshing with hydrating cucumber and sweetened with crisp honeydew melon (make sure to use ripe fruit!). The thicker texture startled me initially, but after a few sips I tried to see it as a frozen drink rather than a typical mixed drink.. The hint of PatrĂłn and jalapeño added extra bite, and while I barely tasted the bone broth, I was happy knowing I was getting a boost of protein and collagen.Ìę

Cucumber Melon Cooler

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This article was originally published in .Ìę

Whether drinking a beer after a workout is a  is up for debate, but you can’t argue with the fact that a hard-earned crisp beverage during a steamy shower is one of life’s simple pleasures. Once the mainstay of the college-hangover crowd and post-lawncare dads, the shower beer has infiltrated the swim-bike-run set in a big, refreshing way. After a hard run or a 100-mile ride, few things are better than , shower beer, and . If you haven’t tried it yet, crack one open after your long run this weekend – you’re in for a treat.

Below we suggest the best shower beers to follow 10 typical triathlon workouts.ÌęTo help guide our picks, we turned to two people more qualified to have opinions on the matter: Advanced Cicerones Shawna Cormier, co-founder of , and , founder of .

Looking for a zero-proof shower beer? Check out our roundup of .

Workout: Mile repeats on the track

The shower beer: , 5.2% ABV

°ÂłóČâ:ÌęYou need something refreshing and not too heavy on a post-run stomach. “Dark beers aren’t all heavy or high ABV!” Blair says. “Czech dark lager, or tmavy, is medium-bodied with moderate alcohol (less than 6%) reminiscent of a cold brew with a crisp finish.”

Workout: A frigid open-water swim

The beer: , 9% ABV

°ÂłóČâ:ÌęAfter fighting chop in the cold, a warmup is in order. “This Imperial Stout has a big body, with hints of dark roast coffee, dark chocolate-covered raisins, and a bittersweet finish,” Cormier says.

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Workout: A spicy group ride

The beer: , 7% ABV

°ÂłóČâ:ÌęSurviving the spontaneous attacks of a group ride deserves a celebratory party punch. “Napoleon Bonaparte is credited for dubbing the tart and refreshing Berliner Weisse ‘The Champagne of the North,’” Blair says. “A refreshing wheat beer, Berliner Weisse is highly carbonated and has a clean tartness. The addition of citrusy yuzu and acidic raspberry enhances the refreshing quality while milk sugar adds a bit of sweetness for balance.”

Workout: A hot, humid tempo run

The beer: , 4.9% ABV

°ÂłóČâ:ÌęTo recover from that sweaty situation, you need something invigorating with enough character to make it all feel worth it. Cormier describes this pilsner as “crisp, clean, moderately bitter; fresh herb, grainy/white bread, refreshing carbonation. A classic.”

Workout: Monster morning session in the pool

The beer: , 3.7% ABV

°ÂłóČâ:ÌęNo one needs a dense gut-filler straight out of the pool to start the day. “Bell’s Light-Hearted IPA delivers the bright hop character of a classic IPA with the light body and low ABV of a light lager,” Blair says. “It has a ton of flavor with low ABV and low calories, perfect for a midday quaff.”

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Workout: Sweaty indoor trainer ride

The beer: , 2% ABV

°ÂłóČâ:ÌęBeer blended with lager and the tartness of grapefruit juice? Sounds like a match for that intense Zwift session. “Radler was invented by a German innkeeper one busy Saturday afternoon outside of Munich when 13,000 cyclists arrived thirsty for Helles lager,” Blair says. “Not having enough beer to satisfy everyone, the innkeeper came up with the idea of mixing lemon soda with his Helles. He told the cyclists the drink was called a Radler he invented so they could slake their thirst but still cycle back to Munich.”

Workout: Many, many hill repeats

The beer: , 9.5% ABV

°ÂłóČâ:ÌęYou need high strength without showing off. A Trappist classic, a tripel has high alcohol and is also highly attenuated (aka dangerously drinkable). Cormier describes the taste as “grainy/bread dough malt with fresh cracked pepper, low clove with a hint of tangerine peel and low pear drop candy.”

Workout: 100-mile solo bike ride

The beer: , 9.6% ABV

°ÂłóČâ:ÌęAfter a long slog by yourself, you might grab whatever’s convenient. But the ideal would be a beer with some sweetness, balanced bitterness and pleasant alcohol warmth to help you relax and recover. Cormier describes this ale as having a “big body with a balance of grapefruit and naval orange peel, a hop aroma with high bitterness, and a caramel malt backbone.”

Workout: Evening weight session in the gym

The beer: , 8% ABV

°ÂłóČâ:ÌęA strength workout calls for a beer with strength, and “at 8% ABV, Ghost in the Machine is consistently rated one of the top double IPAs out there,” Blair says. “It has lots of grapefruit and tropical fruit flavors with less bitterness than many double IPAs.”

Workout: The final big brick before a race

The beer: , 4.2% ABV

Why: You’re so close to the start line and the training is behind you, so treat yourself – without overdoing it – before race day. Cormier recommends this “salty, sour old German style” beer with Gatorade-like saline content and flavors of “white bread dough, and spritzy lemon yogurt acidity,” all in a 120-calorie can.

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Sometimes we do crazy things to prepare for our endurance events of choice.

We wake up at the crack of dawn for laps in the freezing water, squeeze in stretching time wherever and whenever we can (airports, at work, in line at the pharmacy), and become way too familiar with painful chafing. But even through all of this, the craziest training tactic for some endurance athletes is the idea of giving up alcohol. Is it necessary, or can you get away with Saturday night cocktail hour while maintaining a good training schedule?

The Case Against Alcohol

Regardless of how you feel on the topic, alcohol affects almost every part of the body. It especially impacts three things key to endurance training: hydration, sleep, and recovery.

Alcohol is a , which means when you’re drinking, you’re constantly losing fluids. A compound called acetic acid breaks down alcohol while the rest is expelled as toxins through sweat, urine, and even your breath.

Drinking can also negatively affect your sleeping schedule; studies show alcohol messes with REM sleep. While you may pass out on the pillow easier after a few cocktails, you’re more likely to wake up in the middle of the night and have poor sleep quality.

And last but not least, alcohol might muscle recovery. Booze can negate protein synthesis, which is essential to muscle growth after strenuous exercise. This means if you still have alcohol in your system when you run or celebrate a Sunday long run with a few beers, your muscles may not recover as quickly. In fact, one  concluded that athletes who consume alcohol at least once a week are more likely to get injured compared to non-drinkers.

The Case for Balance

It might be possible to balance a healthy training lifestyle while occasionally enjoying a drink if you don’t overdo it. If you choose to drink, try to stick to these guidelines:

Use moderation. Don’t go overboard with the vodka cranberries. One or two drinks will suffice, but any more will be harder to recover from.

Time cocktail hour.ÌęAvoid drinking the night before tough workouts, intervals, and scheduled training days.

Choose wisely.ÌęIt’s best to opt for drinks with low sugar and calorie content. A few good choices are vodka and soda water, dry white wine, and light beers.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.ÌęTo combat dehydration, drink one glass of water per alcoholic beverage. You can also supplement the loss of electrolytes with your sports drink of choice.

To Booze or Not to Booze

The choice to drink while training for an endurance sport is a personal one, and we won’t give you a hard fast answer. But if you have a specific goal for your training like a specific PR time, alcohol may hinder that. The safest way to insure alcohol doesn’t impact your endurance is to avoid it altogether.

However, it’s perfectly possible to enjoy training and the occasional beverage with friends. Be mindful of how much you hydrate, don’t go overboard on cocktails, and time your drinks far away from difficult endurance days.

If you’re looking to substitute a happy-hour drink with a mocktail, we’ve got you covered:

Get the recipe here: Pineapple Hibiscus Mocktail

All information supported and supplied by Registered Dietician, MPH, and former college athlete Schlichter is a co-host of a podcast about endurance fueling for novice athletes, everyday athletes and veteran athletes.

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