On those rare occasions when I’m not enjoying great craft beer, I’ve been known to sip on a smoky Highland single malt or spicy tequila añejo here and there. I can never remember whether the phrase is “Beer before liquor, never sicker” or “Beer after liquor, never sicker,” though, so I usually just stick with beer to be safe. But I don’t recall any handy mnemonics concerning beer and liquor.
Commercial brewers have to follow strict regulations concerning what goes into their products, along with even stricter rules on how said products are labeled. This means that commercial brewers are not allowed to add spirits to their craft beers. It’s perfectly acceptable to age beer in a wooden barrel that previously held such potent potables, but it’s illegal to pour, say, a few bottles of rum into a Russian imperial stout before bottling. Illegal for a professional brewery, that is.
Homebrewers don’t have to follow these rules, and if you’ve never experimented with adding spirits to your beer, prepare to open up a whole new world of possibility. Spirits can introduce additional depth and flavor to your homebrewed ales and lagers, and with the incredible variety of spirits available today, there’s plenty of room to play.
If it’s purely alcohol you’re after, you’re far better off adding some corn sugar to your base beer and calling it good. Yes, every 250 ml (8.5 oz) of 80-proof (40 percent ABV) spirits that you add to 5 gallons of homebrew will raise the overall alcohol by an additional 0.5 percent ABV, but that’s not the point. The point is to introduce a spirit that complements your beer.
Here are a few spirits to consider and what they’ll bring to the party.
- Bourbon whiskey, Tennessee whiskey, and American rye whiskey deliver lots of vanilla, some caramel, varying degrees of fruitiness, coconut, and pure oak. Neat rye whiskey also offers spicy rye character, but this will tend to get lost in the other flavors of the beer once diluted.
- In addition to the cracker and caramel notes from the malt and barrel, respectively, Scotch whisky will often feature some degree of smokiness or brininess, depending upon where it is produced. Many, but not all, Irish whiskies are triple distilled and tend to be cleaner in flavor than American and Scotch whiskies.
- Rum offers up notes of vanilla, molasses, dark dried fruits, and caramel. The darker the rum, the more intense the flavor!
- Gin brings a bouquet of botanical flavors that vary according to the plants with which it was made. The juniper berry serves as the common denominator, but various brands will include anise, cinnamon, coriander, grains of paradise, and other contributors.
- Absinthe is making a welcome comeback following years of prohibition and an undeservedly bad reputation. All examples will feature a strong anise flavor, along with varying amounts of wormwood bitterness. Absinthe’s assertively floral flavor may be hard to integrate into beer, but if your dreams regularly feature Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Oscar Wilde, it might be worth a try.
- Tequila is a wonderful (and thankfully increasingly popular) addition to certain kinds of beers. Its signature flavors of pepper, smoke, and agave meld with barrel qualities the longer it has been aged, making it a match made in heaven for IPAs and many Belgian-inspired styles.
- Brandy and eau-de-vie will bring the character of the individual fruits from which they were distilled, along with any barrel character they will have picked up along the way.
When selecting a bottle to add to your beer, you’ll probably want to stick to the middle of the price range. Cheap distilled spirits may contain artificial colors, artificial flavors, and any number of other hangover-inducing nasties. On the other hand, this isn’t the time to shell out for a bottle of 21-year Oban either. Great spirits should be sipped and savored on their own.
So what combinations work? The classic starting point is a strong stout and oak that has been soaked in bourbon. From there, it’s an easy reach to consider a peated wee heavy with any variety of American, Scotch, or Irish whiskey. Then perhaps a gin-infused Belgian golden strong ale or a tequila-spiked saison strain. The combinations are only limited by your imagination and creativity.
Spirits may be added at any point after primary fermentation. I normally just put it right into the keg or bottling bucket before racking the beer, but if you want to include oak, you may want to presoak the oak with your choice of spirit and then add it to secondary.
The best way to figure out what to add (and how much) is to start with a base beer you already know and love, and try adding varying amounts to the finished product. For example, pour three samples of your favorite stout and add a few drops of rum, bourbon, and tequila to each one. Sample them independently and take careful notes so you can scale it up to a full batch next time. This frees you to really experiment because a bad combination means dumping (or grinning and bearing) just a few ounces of ruined beer instead of five gallons.
So here’s to experimentation and the freedom to create something at home that you could never buy in a bottle shop. Cheers!