Drink

It’s always craft beer week here at Food Republic, but thanks to the Brewers Association, American Craft Beer Week is official and it started yesterday! We’re talking really official, too. There are in fact two resolutions signed by the House of Representatives in support of the weeklong celebration of suds. Here are eight stand-outs on our radar this week.

Cachaça is a liquor made from fermented sugarcane juice and is now recognized by the U.S. as a distinctive product of Brazil, instead of as a "Brazilian rum." With the World Cup and the Olympics turning the world's attention to Brazil in the next couple years, get ready for the cachaça blitz and arm yourself with new cocktail recipes — like this one!

Erick Castro is a bartender’s bartender. After a career working at many of San Francisco's great cocktail bars, he has opened a new bar in sunny San Diego called Polite Provisions, part cocktail bar and part old-fashioned pharmacy counter, complete with egg creams. Instead of telling you what Erick is doing, I thought I would let him do that himself. I bellied up to his new spot and asked him some questions.