Recipe: Ten Mile by Matt Lanning

In late October, I had the honor of managing the judging of the cocktail contest at Great American Distillers Festival. As a result, I got to enjoy them all, and want to share some of my favorites with our readers.

This cocktail combines the warmth of whiskey and ginger (two tastes that go so well together) with vinegar and semi-sweet ale, which you might not normally put tgether. The whole cocktail was a nice, warm, slightly earthy, slightly spicy feel that seems to work especially well this time of year, when the days are darker and the nights are longer.

Ingredients:

2 oz. bourbon (Matt used Breckenridge)

1 ½ oz. apple/ginger shrub (see below)

¼ oz. Angostura bitters

2 oz. brown ale (Matt used Avery Ellie’s Brown from Boulder, CO)

Instructions:

1. Combine bourbon, shrub, and bitters in ice-filled shaker
2. Shake
3. Strain into rocks glass over fresh ice
4. Top with brown ale
5. Garnish with lemon twist after expelling lemon oil over drink

Apple/ginger shrub

Ingredients:

16 oz Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar

~20 slices of ginger peeled with veggie peeler

Agave nectar (roughly 5-6 oz.)

Instructions:

1. Pour vinegar over peeled ginger
2. Infuse for 3 days
3. Strain
4. Add agave nectar, approx 3:1 (roughly 5-6 oz) to taste and mix
5. Bottle or otherwise store in a container with a tight-fitting lid

Matt Lanning tends bar in Boulder, Colorado. He can be most easily tracked down at https://www.facebook.com/mattlanning