Best Wisconsin Old Fashioned - history & recipe

welcome back friends it's anders today i'm going to show you how to make a wisconsin old fashioned i grew up in the state of wisconsin so i've been waiting to do this one and i would like to say that in wisconsin you don't call it a wisconsin old fashioned it's just an old fashioned but if you've ever had one you know it is very different than a traditional old-fashioned first of all it is brandy based that's because wisconsin is a huge consumer of brandy the thing about this drink though is you don't have to have it with brandy if you want it with whiskey that's fine because this drink is very customizable so if you want it sweet if you want it sour if you want it pressed you wanted soda i'll explain all this later anyway i'm gonna show you how i drink it wisconsin old fashioned and how good it is also if you're new to the channel welcome hit that subscribe button for more sips tips and recipes and let's have a wisconsin old-fashioned to the bar [Music] wisconsin has been drinking brandy for a long time in 1893 at the chicago world's fair a young distillery named corbell decided to sample out their brandy and it was a big hit because everybody at the time was drinking whiskey but they decided to make a brandy old fashioned instead of a whiskey old fashion and the wisconsinites who were primarily german immigrants were used to drinking brandy over in europe so they loved it and they took the cocktail home with them over the years the cocktail has evolved but today corbell still sells more brandy in the state of wisconsin than anywhere else also that same fare is when pabst brewing out of milwaukee won the blue ribbon for their american lager that's how they got the name pap's blue ribbon beer it was a huge year for drinking in wisconsin it was a hoot it was a good time great time so we are gonna have ourselves a wisconsin old-fashioned oh also that year there i think there was like crazy mass murder that happened at the world's fair so devil in white city good book check it out we are going to make this drink now so we will build this cocktail in our low ball glass so have a low ball glass we don't need a shaking tin we don't need a mixing glass we're just gonna muddle away in this i also have a a muddler a bar spoon which you don't need but i like to give it a little mix if you have like a straw or your finger my grandpa used to stir his cocktails with his finger i also have a knife an orange and cocktail cherries only stir with your finger if it's your cocktail it's a health issue all right the booze we are gonna need brandy [Music] bitters simple syrup this is my semi-rich simple syrup so i did one and a half parts sugar to one part water but if you want to do straight simple that's okay too and then we're gonna also need soda water the brandy i'm using is corbel and the bitters is angostura aromatic bitters this cocktail comes with a topper it's also called a wash you can order it sweet sour press soda or no wash sweet would be topping off your cocktail with 7up or sprite sour would be topping it off with a grapefruit soda like squirt press would be half seven up half soda water soda would be soda water and then no washes nothing at all all very good depending on the level of sweetness you want as for the brandy i'm using a california brandy if you want to use a cognac you should use a cognac it's very good it's just different it's still technically a brandy but the lighter sweeter california brandy is what i associate with the wisconsin old fashioned so that's what i'm going to use it's also cost effective as for the bitters it has to be angostura bitters for me the taste of angostura bitters in this cocktail is really what makes it a wisconsin old-fashioned when i first started mixing this drink i put in so much angostura bitters that's all you could taste i have since let up on the amount of angostura bitters but still the taste of ango in this cocktail is what reminds me of home but you make the cocktail you want to make let's build we're going to start by muddling a piece of orange and cocktail cherry at the bottom of our glass so i'm going to cut a wheel kind of a thicker wheel like that and i'm going to cut it in half now cut that in half again just because the size of my glass i want the smaller wedges like that [Music] and we can add one cocktail cherry i'm using amarena cherries which are kind of a darker italian cherry but you don't have to a lot of bars in wisconsin are you gonna use the bright red maraschino cherry and if that's what you like that's what you should use but try different cherries we've got the fruit in the glass now we can add a quarter of an ounce of the simple syrup and four good dashes of angostura bitters quite a bit and it's just sitting on the bottom there but we are going to muddle and when we muddle we want to obviously smash up the cherry but we don't want to muddle the rind of the orange just because the pith is going to make it taste bitter if we do so just go for the fruit in the middle and you just want to make it like kind of a paste a lot of recipes will use cane sugar just because it's more abrasive and it can break up the fruit but i like the syrup just because it incorporates into the cocktail better that looks good huh it's like a fruit soup okay right on top of this i'm going to pour two ounces of brandy now grab some ice i lightly crushed my ice i like the lightly crushed ice because then i can give it a stir and all of the the fruit and everything that's at the bottom kind of gets suspended up into the cocktail but you can use smaller cubes or even a large cube and it's still going to be good hold on i am so sorry i am i'm indecent that's more professional take your ice and pour it right on top [Music] leave a little room just for the splash of soda which is going to be a very little bit once i've added the ice i like to give the cocktail a little stir just to lift up the fruit into the cocktail and this really is just a small amount we don't want to dilute this too much that's it just a splash now for the garnish i'm going to use the other half of the orange wheel that i cut and one more cherry i don't believe this has to be a beautiful garnish you can make it really pretty if you want i am going to give it a little bit more crushed ice on top though [Music] that is it the wisconsin old fashioned for the garnish i did the obvious orange and cherry but you can add whatever you want and people do it's really common to get this with olives or pickled mushrooms or pickled brussels sprouts some people really like kind of this sweet savory thing top this off with whatever you like cheers it goes down really easy and the crushed ice gives it kind of like a tiki feel this is like north woods tiki personally i think it's sweet enough but if you want to go sweet and a lot of people do then go with the 7up that is very tasty yeah as somebody who's not from wisconsin i think it's a fascinating drink this drink can get a bad rap and i believe that is because a lot of people will go to some random tavern and have it thrown together and it's just too sweet for them but in showing you how to make this cocktail i'm also trying to instruct you how to order it the thing about this drink is this is meant for everybody so everybody can have it however they want it with whatever garnish they want as sweet sour or bitter as they want this is really where my personal philosophy on cocktail stems from i can make a cocktail for somebody at the bar and make it as balanced and perfect as i think it can be but their preference might be very different than mine if you like something really bitter and somebody gives you a sweet drink it doesn't mean that that cocktail is a terrible cocktail so i suggest trying this cocktail i think you should play with the ratios it's your turn make this cocktail your cocktail so when somebody says hey do you want a wisconsin old-fashioned you say yeah i want an old-fashioned sweet brandy sour whiskey i want pickled brussels sprouts on top and everybody should have a good time that's what drinking's all about thank you for watching if you like this video you know what to do hit that like button subscribe if you haven't already hit the notification bell if you want to be notified the next time a video comes out we're gonna do this again cheers [Music] you

Channel: Anders Erickson

Views: 365,885

Keywords: best wisconsin old fashioned, how to make a wisconsin old fashioned, wisconsin old fashioned history, wisconsin old fashioned cocktail, what is a wisconsin old fashioned, wisconsin old fashioned recipe, wisconsin cocktails, wisconsin old fashioned, wisconsin style old fashioned, wisconsin drinks, brandy old fashioned sour, brandy old fashioned, brandy old fashioned sweet, wisconsin supper club cocktails, supper club drinks, cocktails with brandy, fall drink, Anders erickson

Id: wr1pjEwi4P0

Length: 9min 22sec (562 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 20 2020