Barbook
What is behind a bar, and what to do with it. How every spirit is made, what beer is, the seven methods, the glassware, the service, and the six structures most cocktails are built on.
Written up from a mixology qualification and four years working in hospitality. In reading order, but you can start anywhere. 37 chapters.
Behind the bar7 calculators and references
For working something out rather than reading about it. Each one also sits inside the chapter it belongs to, so there is no need to come here first.
- Search the bookFind a chapter by its title, or by a heading inside it.
- Cocktail familiesThe 6 structures behind almost every drink in the book.
- Balance calculatorPut a build in and see which template it is nearest, and how sweet it will read.
- Strength and dilutionWhat the ice does to the strength, how much water a batch is missing, and how many standard drinks are in the glass.
- Spirit explorer23 bottles, filterable by shelf, sortable by sweetness and intensity.
- GlasswareWhich glass, filtered by how the drink is served.
- Glossary45 terms, searchable by what a thing does as well as what it is called.
The book
Foundations
What a cocktail is, where the idea came from, how every spirit is made, and how to taste one properly.
The back bar
Every bottle on the shelf: what it is made from, what it tastes of, and what it is for.
Beer
The other thing a bar pours, and how to pour it.
Balance and structure
The part nobody taught me: why the recipes work, and the six shapes behind them.
Technique
Shaking, stirring, ice, measuring, and what each one does to the drink.
The kit
Glassware, tools, and how a bar is laid out so the work can happen at speed.
Service
Taking the order, finishing the drink, and the parts of the job that are about people.
The classics
The drinks worth knowing by heart, written as specs, grouped by the structure they share.
Past the syllabus
What the course did not cover and a bar now expects: batching, the zero-proof shelf, and the techniques that arrived after.