Alton Brown’s Spicy Ginger Ale Concentrate is Perfect For Holiday Cocktails and Mocktails
If you’re looking to impress in the kitchen this holiday season, our favorite celebrity chefs are here to help. From preparing Ina Garten’s perfect Thanksgiving spread to whipping up a delicious casserole for Christmas morning thanks to Trisha Yearwood, there’s no shortage of tips to make the holidays a tasty affair.
If becoming the de facto bartender at your upcoming gatherings with family and friends is your goal, Alton Brown has a few tricks up his sleeve for you.
The James Beard award-winning chef is currently promoting his latest cookbook, Good Eats 4, and occasionally hosting a cooking series on YouTube that he dubbed Quarantine Quitchen. If serving up some spirited drinks this season is your plan, Brown has the perfect ingredients.
Alton Brown’s ginger ale concentrate isn’t too sweet
Moscow mules have been around for ages, but Brown is one of the celebrity chefs credited with bringing them back into vogue in 2016. A post of him sipping from a copper mug went viral that year, according to Pop Sugar, and it was around that same time that he included a recipe for homemade ginger ale concentrate in his cookbook, EveryDayCook.
The recipe for the “fiery” concentrate is now available on Brown’s website, and the ingredients couldn’t be simpler. Brown uses crystallized ginger chopped into coarse pieces, a cinnamon stick, and some water for the syrup.
You boil the ingredients for a couple of minutes, then take the pan off the heat and allow the ingredients to meld further by steeping. After straining and cooling the liquid, it becomes the perfect base for various drinks.
“I like ginger ale, but most commercial examples are just too darned sweet for me,” Brown writes with the recipe. “By mixing this syrup with soda water, I can dial it in exactly the way I like.” The Iron Chef host mixes the concentrate with sparkling water for straight ginger ale or adds some spirits for when he’s feeling “especially naughty.”
Use the ginger concentrate in cocktails or mocktails this season
While Moscow mules are popular in the warmer months for their ice-cold temps and refreshing lime zip, variations abound that make them just as appealing during the winter months. Most mules will use ginger beer, not ale, which tends to have deeper flavors and more hints of spice than ginger ales.
However, The Kitchn notes that you can use the two interchangeably. Since Brown infuses his ale concentrate with cinnamon, it’s likely got the right depth to use in any drink that calls for a ginger flavor.
If a mule is what you’re after, Advanced Mixology offers several ideas to get creative, including cranberry and pomegranate variations that are perfect for the holiday season. Serious Eats provides other drink options that use the ginger flavor but allow you to try something other than a mule, including ones that highlight apple or rum flavors.
If you’re looking for something nonalcoholic and perhaps a bit brighter, the Ginger Mojito Mocktail from The Mindful Mocktail offers a healthy but flavorful option. The recipe uses fresh ginger and ginger ale, and since Brown’s version of the ale uses fresh ginger already, the drink would be sure to pack a flavorful punch.
Brown has other alcoholic beverages for family gatherings, too
Ginger-flavored drinks are still hugely popular, but they’re not for everyone. Brown’s got you covered if you’re looking to offer drinks besides the ones that highlight your fresh ginger ale. The roundup is perfect for holiday gatherings, Brown attests, because they’re low on alcohol content but high in flavor. “The key to civilized holiday drinking is to sip low alcohol beverages that deliver twice the flavor but half the bad behavior,” Brown’s site teases for its “Holiday Spirits” episode of Good Eats.
“I wanted to do a show about holiday cocktails that were low alcohol,” Brown said in the trailer for that episode. “Not because I’m sober-curious, but because when my family shows up I want to drink all day long without stopping without falling down on my face.” The key to making these cocktails is using ingredients that pack a lot of flavor without being too dependent on the alcohol content.
Interestingly, many of these drinks are reminiscent of cocktails from decades ago. “Everything that ended up in the show is actually hundreds of years old,” he added. The show includes recipes for Milk Punch, a Cranberry Apple Shrub, and an Allspice Dram.
