I had a Boilermaker last night in the interest of science… and researching this blog. I was at a very tony bar — 42 in White Plains, New York. High over the city, 42 boasts one of the best views in the tri-state area. Unfortunately, we were hemmed in by an impenetrable fog, making the view irrelevant. I will have to go back there to try again for the view.
Being that it was a hedge fund crowd, I did not drink my boilermaker in the traditional way. Instead, in a very ladylike way (if ladylike is the correct term for what I do here), I surreptitiously poured my neat Maker's Mark bourbon into my glass of Samuel Smith porter. Sipping rather than chugging — it was all so classy, much more so than "a shot and a beer." For a caroler, however, I suggest dropping the shot into the beer — to save time, of course. There must be songs to be sung.
We'll move on to the marriage of two perfections, champagne and Guinness — the Black Velvet. Black Velvet can be a blended whiskey. It can be a dramatic pop song by Canadian Allanah Myles (again with the Canadians). Or it can be one of the better of the beer cocktails: sparkling white wine and a stout in a 1:1 ratio.
Not to be confused with Miller High Life, the Champagne of Beers, the Black Velvet is traditionally thought to be a British drink, created in 1861 in the Brooks club during the nationwide mourning period for Queen Victoria's departed husband. Black Velvet describes the black mourning ribbons men wore around their arms. The drink is also called the Bismarck, especially in Germany. It is named for Otto Von Bismarck, a big fan.
Article comments
1 - Victor Lana
Kate, I recall wistfully in my youth seeing my grandfather (of German descent) drinking what he called a boilermaker. I believe it was any kind of whiskey (he liked Rye) mixed in the beer. He was a firefighter (and former Navy man) and this was his "manly man" drink. Prost!
2 - Kate Shea Kennon
Hi Victor:
Zum Wohl to you too! I don't think that there is a more manly drink than the boilermaker. Good point!
3 - Col. Hector Bravado - Denver Six Shooter
I enjoyed the hell out of this post. Nice show. And that October Crisis thingy sounds intriguing.
Talked to a bartender recently who liked to spike a Guinness with Stoli Vanil. He didn't hae a name for it...
4 - Christian Hegele
It's hilarious for me when I search on google once in a while and see a mention of "The October Crisis" on some website or blog. This is because it is a drink a friend and I completely invented on a napkin in a diner some years ago (2006 I think?). We wanted to create the definitive Canadian version of the "Irish car bomb" and so picked an equivalent act of Canadian terrorism and ran with it. So, for the record, here is the original recipe: 1.5 oz of Canadian Club rye whisky poured into a half-pint of Labatt 50.
The Labatt 50 is key, as this was deemed to be the most stereotypically Quebecois beer at the time (Ontario and Quebec being as much divided by Blue/50 allegiance as by language and loyalty to the monarch). The maple syrup was added almost as an afterthought, a rhetorical flourish on this particular address for interprovincial co-operation and understanding. (We toyed with the idea of using Sortilege - a rather rare sort of French Canadian, maple syrup liqueur - in place of whisky, but this was vetoed on the grounds that we'd never actually seen the stuff on sale anywhere and we wanted to maximise this particular drink's accessibility and appeal.
My friend went home that night, doctored the wikipedia page on boilermakers to mention our variant, and that's how we assume it took off and ended up around the net. At the time, it was a purely theoretical creation that we never tested until months after, with pleasantly surprising results -- for a brutal act of terrorism, it proved very easy to swallow.
Christian
London, ON
5 - Christian Hegele
Also, if you want good layering, always pour the highest specific gravity (denser/more sugary) beverage first, and work downward. Guinness draft tends to float on top of most lagers or pale ales, as it is quite light, but the bottled Extra Stout is a very high gravity drink indeed!
6 - Kate
Christian, I'm delighted that you weighed in with the true origins of the October Crisis. Very funny - made my day, a day that now will end with a shot in a beer and a little maple syrup.