As I mentioned at the end of my last post, Lockhouse Distillery was having a mix release party, and while I thought it was for a mix that they were creating, it turns out it was a party for Barrel and Brine‘s mix. If you recall, they were the ones making the mix for the Black Sheep which I reviewed a few months ago, but now they are bottling it for public sale. So while I was a little bit less excited, since I’ve had the mix before, I was still excited that there was any kind of Bloody Mary party to go to.

Lockhouse was offering 3 different Bloody Mary concoctions: The Pizza Lovers, the Barreled Bloody, and Mary’s Garden. I thought I was being smart by ordering all 3 at once, so I could taste test them all together, but I was wrong. Not only because they warmed up and the ice melted, but because I’m pretty sure my drinks were made by the bar back, and they were all made incorrectly. *sigh* Just my luck.

So let’s start with the Pizza Lovers. It was supposed to have mozzarella, pepperoni and basil, and feature Lockhouse vodka. As you can see in the photo (the drink on the left) it did have a skewer with cheese and pepperoni, but it lacks the basil that was stuck in everyone else’s drink. Ok, no big deal. This bloody was made with a different mix than the other two, which I’m assuming was still made by Barrel and Brine, but I’m not sure. It was poured out of an unlabeled wine bottle, and was a completely different texture and flavor. Honestly, it didn’t really taste like much, and of the 3, it was the least exciting. There was a lot of debris floating in it, even though it was still quite liquidy, with mild spice and pickle flavor. Beyond that, it didn’t taste like much.

Next, the Barreled Bloody. The drink was supposed to be made with barrel aged gin, molasses bacon rim, pepperocini, celery and chives, but as you can see in the photo (the top drink), all I got was a pepperocini, and I suspect it was made with vodka. Assuming that it was indeed made with vodka, this was pretty much your basic normal bloody, with the Barrel and Brine mix, poured out of one of the jars they were selling. Surprisingly, it had a very different flavor from the Bloody using their mix at Black Sheep (which is a good thing!). It was definitely not as overwhelmingly pickle flavored and salty, with a mild spice level, that was very good. It had a good strong tomato flavor, and was definitely drinkable. The lack of a bacon rim = highly disappointing.

Lastly, Mary’s Garden, which was being offered with Lockhouse vodka or gin, though he didn’t ask me what I wanted. I suspect it was gin, as it had a completely different flavor than the other 2, and I thought it might be a rosemary flavor but then…maybe not, since everything that was supposed to be in my drink was missing. It was supposed to be garnished with rosemary, cucumber, dilly bean, sweet pepper and pearl onion – hence the “garden” part of the drink. As you can see in the first photo (the drink on the right) all I ended up with was pearl onion and olives (not listed!). Made with the jars of mix again, as a whole, it was the best of the 3, either from the gin or rosemary flavor, which made it more interesting than your usual bloody mary. I just wish it had come as described because while I hate cucumber and didn’t miss it, I looooove dilly beans. I would definitely order this one again, just not from the bar back!

Luckily for me Barrel and Brine also had a garnish table set up, where they were letting you try their various pickled items in your drink, plus selling all their wares. I spoke to them a bit, asking about the mix, and why the Black Sheep’s drink might have been so salty and overwhelming (they said they didn’t know, but that they had heard that before. They did say they leave some things, like Worcestershire sauce, out of the jarred mix in case people want to keep it vegan.) I added some of their green beans, horseradish dill pickles, cajun pickles, pearl onion and this super delicious jalapeno hot sauce to my Mary’s Garden, which put it just over the top into an excellent drink. The hot sauce was very good, and not at all full of vinegar flavor like my arch nemesis Frank’s, so the drink got a nice added punch without altering the flavor profile (and I also bought a bottle for $4, score!)

All the drinks were $9, and mine were served in pint glasses, but that did not seem to be standard. Maybe it was the lack of clean glasses, maybe he messed mine up, but everyone seemed to be getting different styles of glass, from pint, to other beer glasses, to smaller rocks type glasses. If they keep a bloody on offering at Lockhouse, I’m not sure what you’ll end up getting for your $9 in the future. While I was disappointed by the way my drinks were made, especially since we know the bar manager, and their bar tenders are usually excellent when making all their crafty drinks, in the end I was impressed with Barrel and Brine’s mix offering. I would have picked a jar up to enjoy at home if I wasn’t drowning in at least 20 unopened bottles of various mixes I bought to review here. Someday!!

And the best part of all was that the $15 Lockhouse gift card I won at trivia night a few months ago turned out to be for $30!