Vespermania
This sounds a bit like a bunch of cocktail nerds got out of hand and held a WWF-style brawl. Don't lie, you would totally watch that, wouldn't you? What I actually have for you today, as with many of my drinks, is something born out of curiousity and availability. What was available: a LOT of barrel-aged (pink) vesper (check out my post from 1/5/22 for details). It turns out that when you barrel-age a cocktail, you get... (checks notes) a barrel FULL of cocktail. As someone who infrequently makes the same drink more than a couple times, that is a *lot* of vesper.
So my curiousity naturally kicked in. What else can I do with it? Conceptually it comes across like other barrel-aged spirits, so I reached for some easy templates to experiment. It turns out that an even split with whiskey makes for an awesome backbone in two classics, the Old Fashioned and the Manhattan. It’s awesome how well the gin and the whiskey coexist. It's like the gin went to the gym so it could be all cool like the whiskey and is now finally accepted as one of the Bros. Am I making sense? Why am I asking so many questions today?
Recipes:
Manhattan
1oz barrel aged vesper
1oz rye whiskey (Rittenhouse @heavenhilldistillery)
1oz sweet vermouth (@cocchi1891)
1 dash each angostura + orange bitters (@scrappysbitters, gifted)
Stirred with ice until chilled. Strain into chilled coupe. Express and include lemon twist.
Old Fashioned
1oz barrel aged vesper
1oz bourbon (@elijahcraig)
1-2tsp turbinado syrup
1 dash each angostura + Orleans bitters (@scrappysbitters, gifted)
Stir all ingredients with ice until chilled. Strain over large block of clear ice. Express and include orange twist.
Cheers? Cheers!!
