How to Make Bottled Bourbon Cocktails For Socially Distanced Holiday Drinking

2020 shouldn’t stop you from safely toasting the holiday season, so I’ve put together a recipe for a bottled Basil Hayden’s brown butter sweet potato pie old fashioned that you can deliver contact free to your buddies for a digital happy hour for Friendsgiving and beyond. The warm mulling spices, candied sweet potatoes, and roasted, nutty brown butter pairs perfectly with their excellent Kentucky bourbon. It’s literally fall in glass!

I’m double teaming this recipe with two techniques I love: infusing and fat washing. I’m infusing our bourbon with complimentary spices that go well with Basil Hayden’s profile without overwhelming it (I’d hate to mute good hooch!) using sweet potato and mulling spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, star anise and clove. (Special shout out to the fine folks at HiLo Liquor for hashing this idea out with me.)

Simultaneously, we are fat washing it with brown butter, which not only lends a super luxurious texture, but makes your house smell totally incredible. The French call brown butter buerre noisette and you’ll see why when you make it — the kitchen becomes overwhelmed with the aromas of toasting hazelnuts as it cooks!

Once the infusion is made, it’s double strained and combined with some brown sugar simple syrup to keep with the sweet potato pie theme, and mixed with Fee’s Black Walnut Bitters and Angostura Orange so we get a little citrus since we’re garnishing these old fashies with toasted marshmallows.

Bottle these cocktails, dress them up with some found foliage from the neighborhood using butcher twine, and you’ve got a full blown vibe for Friendsgiving 2020. (I purchased these on Amazon.) I also got some cellophane bags to send each along with a couple marshmallows for toasting as the garnish.

Once you put these little brown butter washed old fashioneds together, all your friends need to do is grab a glass, pour over an ice cube (the dilution and stirring already have taken place pre-bottling), and toast their marshmallows over the stove for the ultimate fall treat. Trust me, you don’t want to skip the marshmallow part; the olfactory element is bonkers.

Here’s how to these bottled cocktails made for Friendsgiving, or for any upcoming holiday fete.

Ingredients

Infused Bourbon

1 750 ml bottle Basil Hayden’s Bourbon

2 sweet potatoes

1 cinnamon stick

1 clove star anise

1 teaspoon cardamom

2 whole cloves

1/2 whole nutmeg pod

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

Brown Sugar Simple Syrup

1 cup water

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

For Bottled Cocktail

22 oz brown butter sweet potato infused bourbon (this is approx amount this recipe will yield accommodating for the Angel’s Share)

12 shakes Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters

12 shakes Angostura Orange Bitters

8 oz brown sugar simple syrup

2 cups ice

For Garnish

24 marshmallows

Cocktail skewers

Cellophane bags

Equipment

4 x 8 oz bottles

Funnel

Fine mesh strainer or chinois

Cheese Cloth

Butcher twine

Microwave or bake your potatoes so they are soft to the touch, but not fully baked through to the point of mashing (approx 4 minutes). Slice into 1/2 inch rounds and place inside a large Tupperware container.

Brown your butter by placing in a sauce pan on medium heat, continually agitating the pan to ensure the butter doesn’t burn. When the butter starts to change color, keep going, but don’t overcook. When it’s ready, the aroma will smell like toasting hazelnuts and the milk fats will be frothing, and it will be a nutty, light brown color. Pour brown butter into the Tupperware with the sweet potatoes.

Make a sachet with your spices using cheesecloth and a piece of butcher twine. (If you don’t have this, you can just place it directly in, just know you’ll be fishing it out later.) Pour the bottle of Basil Hayden’s into the container and refrigerate.

After the first 24 hours, use a straw to taste your infusion. Taste daily to watch the flavor develop. You can pull out the spice sachet if you find it’s getting too spicy, but I let mine run for 5 days total.

After 5 days, double strain your infusion, first with a chinois or mesh strainer, then with cheesecloth to remove all the particles.

In a large mixing glass (I used a pitcher but you can also use a very large Mason jar), mix the bourbon, brown sugar simple syrup, bitters, and ice using a large spoon. Your cubes should melt approximately halfway. Strain, then using a funnel fill your bottles with the cocktail. This will be enough for your 4 x 8.5 oz bottles plus approximately 2 cocktails for yourself — or you know, one 2020 cocktail. Decorate your bottles, put a handful of marshmallows in a cello bag with a couple cocktail skewers, and deliver contact free to friends for your scheduled Zoom happy hour.

Enjoy responsibly, from a distance, and happy Friendsgiving!