As we promised yesterday, our photos from Cocktail Camp 2012 are now online, as well as the recipes for everything served during our three social hours. Your event program contains recipes for the lunchtime and afternoon bars, and now you can get the morning bar recipes as well.

The video is not ready yet, but it will be posted as soon as we have it.

Rather than rambling on about it any longer, I’ll let you take a look for yourselves:

Cocktail Camp 2012 photos and recipes here

While we were at it, we made a page for Cocktail Camp 2011 photos and recipes as well. Check it out for even more great stuff you can make at home.

And for those of you who didn’t make it, enjoy the recipes and please join us for more next year!

We had a great time at the third annual Cocktail Camp last weekend and we hope everyone who came out did as well. We know the beautiful weather and other events happening that weekend were almost as compelling, so we really appreciate everyone who made it.

We especially want to thank our generous sponsors: New Deal Distillery, Campari, Stone Barn Brandyworks, Crater Lake Spirits, The Boozeniks, and, finally, Stevens IS for printing up the great programs for us.

We also want to thank everyone else who help to make this happen, from our wonderful speakers to our bar staff and everyone else who helped out during the day with one thing or another.

We’ve gone over the feedback from the survey we sent out and wow, you guys loved Stuart Ramsay! So did we, and I can’t wait to hear him speak again somewhere, anywhere. If you got an email about the survey but haven’t taken it yet, please take a moment to do so. Your feedback will help us understand what you liked and also to find areas that need improvement for next year.

Speaking of which, we’d like to acknowledge that not everything went off smoothly this year, most notably our scheduling and lines at the bars. We had a few issues related to staffing and some missing cocktail ingredients and we regret the late start that cascaded through the rest of the day, and also for the lines that many of you waited in so patiently. Lessons learned, and we’re already talking about how to make sure this doesn’t happen again next year.

We have tons of pictures and will be creating a permanent page here on the Cocktail Camp web site for this year’s event. This page will be up soon and will include our photos and video, information about the talks, and recipes for everything we served, including the cocktails served at our morning bar that were not included in your program.

Thanks again for all your support, especially those of you who have been coming to Cocktail Camp every year. We hope to see you all again in 2013!

Photo by Diana Athey.

Cocktail Camp is just three days away! We’re as excited as you are, so we’ve put together a short list of things you might want to know as you get ready for your day.

Getting There

Urban Studio is located in Portland’s Pearl District at 935 NW Davis Street, right on the corner of NE 10th and Davis. Here’s a Google Map to help you find us.

We encourage everyone to drink responsibly, so avail yourself of Portland’s great public transit if you can.

Food and Drink

Well, drink is the whole point, right? If you’ve been following along on the Cocktail Camp blog, you already know about our cocktail bars and social hours. Here’s a brief reminder:

• 10:30 — Stone Barn Brandyworks Meet & Greet and morning social hour
• 1:00 — New Deal lunchtime social hour
• 3:00 — Campari afternoon aperitivo hour

Each cocktail hour will actually run for 90 minutes and will each feature cocktails showcasing some of the sponsors’ products. Six drink tickets are included with your entry price and if that’s not enough, additional tickets are available for only $2 each (cocktails are half-sized, so don’t worry about having to skip some).

With all that going on, you’ll definitely need to eat something. Food will be available from the Urban Studio kitchen, which will be open all day for everything from coffee to sandwiches, salads, and plenty of non-alcoholic drinks.

Social Media

We love social media! Everyone is encouraged to live-blog, live-tweet, or whatever else they want throughout the day.

• Use the #ccpdx hashtag on Twitter
• Tag your Flickr photos cocktailcamp and cocktailcamppdx

Afterparty

It’s an annual Cocktail Camp tradition — a bunch of us met up at Clyde Common for a sort of unofficial afterparty once things wrap up for the day. It’s almost as much fun as the event itself, so let’s do it again this year. They don’t know we’re coming, so we won’t have reserved tables or anything, but it’ll be early enough that fitting in shouldn’t be a problem. See you there?

Thank you

Finally, be sure to introduce yourself to the Cocktail Camp staff on Sunday. We love meeting the people who make this all possible. We couldn’t do it without you.

... but not for long! After two sold-out years, we’re just a small handful of tickets away from selling out again this year. You can buy your tickets here for only $40, which gets you a full day of discussion panels featuring our hand-picked experts, spirit and cocktail tastings during sessions, plus six complimentary cocktails during the three social hours we have scheduled throughout the day.

These social hours are hosted by Stone Barn Brandyworks, New Deal Distillery, and Campari, with cocktails created by some of Portland and San Francisco’s best bartenders: David Shenaut (Rum Club, Beaker & Flask, Teardrop Lounge), Lydia Reissmueller (Central), Stuart Green (San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch), and Allison Webber (Irving Street Kitchen, Bourbon & Branch).

And to recap our session lineup:

The Art of Tasting — House Spirits distiller Colin Howard and Tony Devencenzi from San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch will teach you proper techniques for tasting spirits, which will help you refine your preferences, plan better pairings, and create your own fantastic cocktails.

Scotch: It’s easier than you think — Scotch doesn’t have to be intimidating. Whiskey expert Stuart Ramsay and Kask’s Tommy Klus will discuss the varieties of Scotch, the effect region has on their flavors, and why learning about it is not as hard as you might think.

The Perfect Host — Last year you learned that yes, you can entertain. Now put that knowledge to use. Cocktail consultant Morgan Schick will teach you the skills of cocktail party menu planning and how to accommodate your guests on any budget.

Introduction to Aperitifs — Aperitifs aren’t just for pre-dinner happy hour. Neil Kopplin, creator of Imbue Vermouth, and Patrick Taylor will discuss their history, use, and the variety, and get ideas on how and why to incorporate them into your home bar.

Convinced? You should be. Buy your tickets now! (while you still can)

Our third and final social hour announcement is about the first one of the day. We’re happy to welcome back Stone Barn Brandyworks as host of our morning meet-and-greet social hour.

Those of you who came to Cocktail Camp last year will remember the founder of Stone Barn Brandyworks, Sebastian Degens, who took part in our discussion of New American Whiskeys. During that talk, we sampled some of their unique unaged rye and oat whiskeys. This time around, they’ll be providing us with morning cocktails featuring some of the brandies they’re famous for.

During this morning social hour, we’ll be served from a cocktail menu created by Allison Webber and Stuart Green, from San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch (although you may also remember Allison from when she was behind the bar at Irving Street Kitchen here in Portland). The menu is a surprise, but it’s sure to please. Check back here for the recipes after the event.

Space is running low so if you don’t have yours yet, you should get your tickets now.

Our final social hour of the day, leading into our discussion on aperitifs (or aperitivo in Italian), is hosted by perhaps the best-known aperitif spirit, Campari.

Campari recently hosted a number of “Best Aperitivo” competitions around the US and we’re lucky enough to present two of the winning cocktails, from the Portland and San Francisco events, served by their creators.

The Souracher — Rye, Campari, sweet vermouth, lime, ginger beer (created by David Shenaut, first place, Portland)

Fiore di Mela — Campari, Hibiki whiskey, sherry, honey, sparkling apple cider (created by Morgan Schick, first place, San Francisco)

Belle Époque — Campari, brandy, sherry, dry vermouth (created by Allison Webber, second place, San Francisco)

This is a great chance to try some new and literally award-winning Campari cocktails, ones you’re sure to find on bar menus in the future (of course our event program will include the recipes so you’ll also be able to make them at home).

Our afternoon aperitivo hour runs from 3:30 to 5:00pm, with Introduction to Aperitifs beginning at 4:00. See you there!

Our lunchtime cocktail bar and social hour is sponsored by long-time Cocktail Camp supporters, New Deal Distillery (who just launched a nice new web site). This bar will featured cocktails developed and poured by Lydia Reissmueller, a cocktail consultant behind the bar program at Central and other standout Portland cocktail bars.

Here’s a taste of what she’ll be serving up during Cocktail Camp’s lunchtime social hour:

Signs of Life — Portland Dry Gin, rhubarb-honey syrup, lime, served on the rocks.

Ginger Fizzle — New Deal Ginger Liqueur, rye whiskey, lemon, dry sparkling wine, served up with a dash of Angostura bitters.

Va Bene — Chianti brandy, dry vermouth, Punt e Mes sweet vermouth, Peychaud’s bitters, served up with lemon twist.

Our lunchtime social hour runs from 1:15 until 2:45, with the next discussion not starting until 2:30, so you’ve got plenty of time to sample the drinks and get to know some of your fellow cocktail enthusiasts.

Cocktail Camp tickets are still on sale. Buy your tickets now!

We forgot to post an announcement about this yesterday morning, so we’ve extended our early “Happy Hour” discount ticket sales one more day to ensure everyone on our mailing list gets that final reminder.

Discounted Happy Hour tickets can be had until the end of the day Tuesday, March 13, for only $30.

Your ticket price includes admission to the event plus four complimentary drink tickets which can be redeemed for cocktails and punch at any of our three social hour bars we’ll have available. As always, we never add extra fees or charges onto our ticket prices.

Buy your Cocktail Camp 2012 tickets here

Tickets for Cocktail Camp 2012 are now available! As promised, you can now purchase discounted tickets for just $30. These prices go up to $40 on March 13, assuming there are any left, so it’s probably a good idea to buy now.

Your ticket price includes admission to the event plus four six complimentary drink tickets which can be redeemed for cocktails and punch at any of our three social hour bars we’ll have available. As always, we never add extra fees or charges onto our ticket prices.

Buy your Cocktail Camp 2012 tickets here

Tickets for Cocktail Camp 2012 will begin Tuesday morning with our special “Happy Hour” tickets, which will be available for a limited time. For just three weeks you can pick up tickets for only $30. These ticket are all-inclusive, as always, and will get you not only admission to the day of events but also four complimentary drink tickets good for cocktails and punch from the three social hours we’ll have running throughout the day.

Happy Hour tickets will be available for three weeks, until March 13, when prices go up to $40. We’ve sold out every year so far, so these discounted early tickets are a good opportunity to secure your seat.

We’ll have more about those social hours, as well as our featured speakers, as soon as we have things finalized (lots of moving parts here).

We’ll make another announcement Tuesday when tickets are on sale and provide a link to the page where you can register.

Cocktail Camp 2012 is fast approaching! Our hard-working team has put together a great lineup for you this year’s event. Discussion participants are still being finalized but here’s a small taste of what’s in store for you in April:

• The Art of Tasting
• Scotch: It’s easier than you think
• The Perfect Host
• Introduction to Aperitifs

As with last year’s event, we will also have three complimentary social hours throughout the day, hosted by our generous sponsors. The complete schedule for the day, including times, can be found on the Cocktail Camp web site.

This year Cocktail Camp PDX will be held on Sunday, April 22, at Urban Studio, a beautiful event space in Portland’s Pearl district. More information will be posted as it becomes available. Please subscribe to our RSS feed for all the latest or sign up for our mailing list using the form on the right side of our news page.

Tickets will go on sale next Tuesday morning, February 21. Discounted “Happy Hour” tickets will be available for a limited time. Stay tuned for details.