I brought a six-pack of craft-brew ginger beer to a party. One of the other guests brought a fifth of maple-flavored Jim Beam. And the Short Stack was born. It tastes exactly like pancakes. Since that party, I’ve had one of these for breakfast most mornings. Just kidding, but it is a fantastic brunch cocktail.
It’s hard for me to believe, but I’m not the first one to think a pancake-flavored cocktail would be a good idea. The Institute for Alcoholic Experimentation has even researched the idea. But if it takes that kind of brainpower to come up with this kind of cocktail, I guess I feel pretty good about my day drinking.
Makes one drink
Ice
1.5 oz. maple-flavored whiskey
1.5 oz. club soda
1 bottle (12-oz.) ginger beer
1 slice cooked bacon (optional, for garnish)
4-5 fresh blueberries (optional, for garnish)
Fill an 8-oz. rocks glass with ice. Pour whiskey over the ice. Add soda. Add ginger beer to fill the glass. (You won’t need the entire bottle.) Stir gently. (Garnish with bacon and blueberries.)
Notes:
- This drink takes well to ice. As it sits, the melting ice seems to bring out the bourbon undertones.
- The club soda cuts the drink’s sweetness, which might otherwise seem cloying, depending on how sweet the ginger beer is.
- You’ll get about 4-5 drinks from a 12-oz. bottle of ginger beer. An unfiltered ginger beer is preferable. Ginger ale is a poor substitute; it’s too sweet and lacks depth. Ginger beer – unlike ginger ale – is fermented and brewed.
- You can make ginger beer at home. There’s a fast way, and a (possibly alcoholic) slow way. There are many variations of these processes, so do some research before embarkation.
- The oven is the best way to cook pretty bacon slices. Drape them over a rack, positioned over a sheet pan. Don’t preheat. Place the bacon in the oven, and set the oven to 400ºF. Bake them until they’re chewy – not fully crisped – so that they’ll be pliable enough to thread onto a skewer.
The Short Stack
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! This content was not solicited, nor written in exchange for anything. In doing research for this recipe, I discovered that a rocks glass is short tumbler. A tumbler is a straight-sided glass with no handle. The original tumblers had curved bottoms, and so could not be set down without tumbling over and spilling. This forced the drinker to drink the entire drink without putting it down. Why did that fun have to stop?
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Such a fun and creative drink! I have never had a ginger beer..does it really have ginger taste?
Angie@Angie’s Recipes recently posted…Cherry Tomato Arugula Salad with Pine Nuts and Blueberries
Oh yes, very much so. A good ginger beer is much more gingery than ginger ale.
OK, so for a moment there Jeff I got worried, thought you had gone mad, and were seriously having this for breakfast everyday! Ha ha!
But, again as it involves whiskey (you and I would get on really well I feel) I couldn’t blame you if you did have this for breakfast. It sounds AMAZING!
Well, I just heard on the news today that the Queen of England has four drinks every day. I don’t know how she’s spaces them out, but I want in on that tradition!
Say what!?! This takes Beerios to a whole new level. 🙂 Also, ginger beer is a staple around here for Moscow Mules (or Kentucky Mules since we make ’em with bourbon), so I’m pretty sure we have everything needed for this one. Except no Crown Maple. I have regular Crown. Maybe a hit of real maple syrup in there will get the same result. We shall have to embark on a research mission to find out.
David @ Spiced recently posted…Sausage and Peppers Pizza
Keep me posted! (Kentucky mule sounds great! I’m a bourbon fan, too.)
i kind of love that there’s an institute for alcoholic experimentation. i’m not a huge alcohol person (stereotypical asian genes over here), but this sounds delicious! so much tastier than the last cocktail i had, which had sugar snap pea juice in it and basically tasted like green juice. not quite my cup of tea.
heather (delicious not gorgeous) recently posted…Bubbly Strawberry Jasmine Tea
Wow! I’m not sure I’d like a snap-pea cocktail either!
Sounds like a terrific drink! Certainly the garnish looks excellent. But, well, bacon. 🙂
John/Kitchen Riffs recently posted…The Eclipse Cocktail
I was hoping you’d like that garnish!
I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical when I first saw your pic on Facebook but your description and the ginger beer has gotten the better of my curiosity, plus that bacon garnish looks awesome! We always eat a but of salty protein with pancakes (too much sugar otherwise makes us shaky!) so the salty sweet combo is right up my alley!
If you like ginger, you really must try ginger beer. However, they vary tremendously by brand. Some are sweet and too much like ginger ale. The really good ones are dark, rich, complex, and astonishingly spicy. If you think about how, say, a really good local, small-batch, wheat beer – which is substantial and opaque – is different from the thin, transparent, soda-pop simplicity of a Miller Lite, this would be the difference between a good ginger beer, and a good ginger ale. I’ve been toying with the idea of brewing some ginger at home. The pancake drink, honestly, is a novelty. It’s tasty, and I enjoy it – but I don’t think I’d rush out looking for a bottle of maple whiskey just so I could make one. The garnish, on the other hand, I’m quite proud of. I think it or some variation would be at home in many a whiskey drink. And although the garnish was delicious on it’s own, it was freaking delicious dunked into the drink!
Yum! This is a truly intriguing recipe which I have to try, Jeff!
Please do!
I hate Bloody Marys (weird, I know), and just found my alternative drink. This looks awesome!
Kevin | economicalchef.com recently posted…Easy Arugula Walnut Pesto
I hate bloody maries, too!
Interesting, reminds me of bloody mary with fried chicken
Raymund recently posted…Hakka Style Deep Fried Pork Belly
Ha… great cocktail take on a breakfast. I don’t think you can do it right without that garnish!
I was definitely excited about that garnish, for sure.