Deconstructing Cocktails

Usually when a human brain comes into contact with alcohol, the brain gets dumber. But not tonight! Get smart with Lance Winters, Master Distiller and creative force behind the East Bay's very own St. George Spirits, and Adam Rogers, author of the bestselling Proof: The Science of Booze. They will be talking about the history, chemistry, and mythology of the cocktail in your hand. And the second cocktail, also.

Every ingredient in a drink—the gin, sweet vermouth, and bitters of a Negroni; the tequila, lime, orange liqueur, and sugar of a Margarita; etc.—has thousands of years of technical and chemical history. The biochemistry of fermentation, the economic extraction of the transatlantic sugar trade, the Silk Road tech-transfer of distillation technology, the intertwined histories of medicine and entertainment…all of that is what’s actually getting shaken, stirred, and strained into any given cocktail. Adam and Lance have both spent decades poring over all that, and pouring all that over their work. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about what’s in all those bottles in the back bar, this is the nerd cabaret for you.

Lance Winters is a nuclear-engineer-turned master mixologist. He approached St. George Spirits in 1996 with a dream to transform his favorite ales into whiskey. His launch of many of St. George's hallmark spririts has earned him the accolades of membership in the Whisky Magazine Hall of Fame, as well as five James Beard Foundation nominations for the category of Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Producer.

Adam Rogers writes about science, technology, and culture. As an editor and writer at Wired, his article “The Angels’ Share” won a AAAS/Kavli award, and his piece “The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress” remains one of the most-read pieces of journalism on the internet. Adam is the author of The New York Times bestseller Proof: The Science of Booze and of Full Spectrum: How the Science of Color Made Us Modern. He is a graduate of Pomona College and has a Masters degree in science journalism from Boston University, and he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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