Root Beer Old Fashioned Recipe
Root Beer Old Fashioned Ingredients
2 oz / 60 ml Old Grand-Dad 114 Bourbon
0.5 oz / 15 ml Rebel Root Beer Whiskey
1 barspoon Demerara syrup
2-3 dashes cherry vanilla bitters (we used Scruffy City Bitters)
Orange peel and 3 cocktail cherries, for garnish
How to make a Root Beer Old Fashioned
Stir all the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice until well chilled, then strain over a large clear ice sphere.
Express an orange peel around the inside of the glass and garnish with three cherries. We used Filthy brand cherries and they are really good.
This is our second take on a root beer old fashioned. The first was the root beer rye old fashioned, which leaned on a root beer dessert syrup that has since been discontinued. This version gets its root beer flavor from Rebel's root beer whiskey instead. At 70 proof it drinks more like a liqueur, so it pulls double duty as part of the sweetener alongside a barspoon of demerara syrup. Old Grand-Dad 114 is the backbone here; its high rye content stands up to the root beer without getting lost.
The drink was inspired by Scruffy City Bitters, a brand new company out of Knoxville, the Scruffy City itself. Their cherry vanilla bitters are bourbon based and a natural match for root beer. They are so new they are still working on their labels, so if you want to be among the first to try them, leave a comment on the video or reach out to @scruffycitybartending on Instagram. This is the first of several drinks we will be making with their bitters.
