Celebrate a new recognized whiskey style with cocktails for American Single Malts

When you hear “single malt,” your mind likely goes straight to Scotches — and certainly, Scotland has been producing some of the best known single malt whiskeys for hundreds of years. But a growing interest in whiskey in the US has kicked off a wave of American distilleries producing their own American Single Malts, which were recently ratified into a category of their own by the US government’s Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau.

To celebrate the recognition of this category, American single malt producer Balcones crafted their own cocktail — called, of course, Sweet Ratification. It’s a pecan-packed nutty taken on the Old Fashioned, and along with a couple of other cocktail suggestions, these are the perfect way to cheer on this new and emerging whiskey style for National Whiskey Day.

Sweet Ratification

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Balcones Texas 1
• ½ ounce pecan syrup
• 3 dashes aromatic bitters
• Garnish: dehydrated orange wheel, cinnamon stick, 1 pecan halve

Method:

1. Add ice into the rocks glass.
2. Add whisky, pecan syrup, and bitters. Stir until the glass is chilled.
3. Garnish with dehydrated orange wheel, cinnamon stick, and pecan.

Grapefruit Highball

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ ounces Balcones Lineage
• 4 ounces grapefruit soda
• Garnish: grapefruit half wheel/wheel (optional)

Method:

1. Add lineage into highball glass.
2. Add ice into glassware.
3. Top off with grapefruit soda
4. (Optional) Garnish with a grapefruit half wheel/wheel.

“1” Old Fashioned

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces Balcones Texas 1
• 3 dashes of Angostura bitters
• 1 bar spoon of rich demerara syrup
• Garnish: lemon twist

Method:

1. Add all ingredients to an Old Fashioned glass.
2. Add ice and stir 30 times.
3. Garnish with a lemon twist.