The boilermaker, essentially a shot and a beer, might seem too simplistic to be called a cocktail. But the drink has a history, and might even be on its second revival.
In the 1800s, Europeans regularly would wash down their spirits with a beer. There was the Dutch kopstoot or “head-butt,” which featured a shot of genever with a beer chaser. Another was the German herrengedeck (“gentleman’s setup”), which was a spirit called korn, followed by a beer.
Back then, Americans preferred ice water to down their spirits. But, as they assimilated, immigrants, especially the Irish and Germans, normalized the practice of drinking a whiskey and a beer. By the 1930s, it even had a name in America: the boilermaker.
A boilermaker also is someone who fabricates metal, usually for pressurized containers, or “boilers.” This might be where the two-fisted drink got its name. And, though some folks have tried to refine the combinations, it remains a blue-collar favorite, especially in America’s Rust Belt of the Midwest and Northeast.
The boilermaker also seems to gain in popularity in connection with what is happening in the rest of the cocktail world. In the current cocktail renaissance, complicated drinks made with fresh juices and artisan-crafted additives can seem overwhelming. The simple solution: a shot and a beer.
While there are versions of the boilermaker that involve dropping the shot into the beer (for example, the Irish car bomb, a mix of Irish whiskey and Irish cream dropped into a Guinness and chugged down), we will leave those to youthful indulgence and focus instead on the side-by-side pairings. The traditional boilermaker is whiskey and beer — more specifically, rye whiskey and a lager. We believe there is a lot of room for creative interpretation.
For example, the idea that “what grows together goes together” is talked about frequently with wine and food pairings, such as goat cheese and a chenin blanc from the Loire, but we think it extends nicely to spirit and beer combinations, too. We are fans of Italian amaros, especially Nardini, which bridges the gap between amaro and the more intense fernet category of bitters. We like this paired with crisp Italian pilsners, but, closer to home, Arches Brewery makes one in the Italian style called Sprezzatura.
This also applies to places like Mexico, where Bohemia, a crisp pilsner, was John Steinbeck’s favorite beer. You can pair it with a barrel-aged reposado tequila, like the lovely one from Siembra Azul.
We also like that same crisp Bohemia with something extravagant, like Compass Box’s Hedonism, a rich grain whiskey from Scotland.
The combinations can be endless — and endlessly delightful. Have fun exploring.
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