Boilermaker

• Beer
• Shot

It’s as simple as it gets! A shot and a beer! For drinkers who prefer their alcohol to go back to basics, no shaking or stirring involved, the Boilermaker is the perfect choice. Whether you choose bourbon or moonshine, you’ll be able to savor the nuances of your spirit without any mixers getting in the way. To take the boozy edge off, chase it down with the cold freshness of a Miller High Life. Or throw all that out the window and mix spirit and beer together for the supercharged lager of your dreams.

About the Recipe

The Boilermaker might seem like it long predated the cocktails it sits alongside on our menu. After all, it makes sense that people would drink the alcoholic beverages together without mixers before they started concocting all kinds of crazy cocktails, right? Not so. Spirit and ale together was a common occurrence in Ireland and Great Britain, but the combination took longer to properly cross the pond. Even before then, the name “Boilermaker” was not how they’d have described it. Over here, we were chasing our shots with glasses of water.

Cocktail History

It wasn’t until German and Irish immigration really kicked off in the United States that Americans got used to marrying their spirits with their beers. Other than the side-by-side serving we utilize, bartenders also started coming up with drinks where the two were already mixed. The beer-liquor cocktail and the pairing in separate glasses eventually evolved into the “bomb” style drinks where a shot is dropped into a beer and, oftentimes, chugged.

In the decades since its naming, the Boilermaker has been a staple of working-class drinking and it’s also found its place in more bohemian, artistic circles.

Prior to Prohibition, nobody really had a name for the Boilermaker. You could just order a “beer n’ whisky,” but that hardly has the pizazz of the modern name. In the 1930s, imbibers started calling it the wordy “Boilermaker and His Helper.” At the time, the skilled laborers of metalwork would need extra muscle to get the job done. Presumably, the beer is the extra muscle. In time, the name was shortened to the simpler “Boilermaker.”

In the decades since its naming, the Boilermaker has been a staple of working-class drinking and it’s also found its place in more bohemian, artistic circles. Today, like many mixed drinks, the Boilermaker is experiencing an imaginative comeback as many a trendy cocktail bar will sport its own menu of creative spirit/beer offerings.

For our purposes, we’ve kept it simple with the original whiskey and beer combo. Get your buzz with no frills, two drinks at a time!