Recipe

• 1.5 oz Brandy
• .5 oz Fig Syrup
• .5 oz Dry Curacao
• 1 Whole Egg
• 3 oz Oktoberfest Beer
• Garnish: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

Add all ingredients except beer to a shaker without ice. Vigorously shake longer than normal to emulsify the egg and get everything frothy. Add some ice and briefly shake again just until it’s cold. Double strain into a goblet and top with the beer. Drink alongside a peanut butter cup.

* * * *

Okay, this cocktail is just for fun. Just this year, I found out that Catholics extend the official observance of the All Souls’ and All Saints’ holidays to a full eight days to form the “All Saints Octave“. This is a time for Catholics to earn extra indulgences to help those in Purgatory.

Now, being a good, Reformation-steeped Protestant myself, and knowing that Luther specifically kicked off the Reformation this week partly to protest these very indulgences, I thought it’d be a good opportunity to celebrate my spiritual heritage in this by crafting a cocktail.

Yes, I was obviously riffing on the idea of an indulgence to make this drink, but dang is it truly indulgent. It’s complex and a little bitter from the beer (a German Oktoberfest, of course). It is creamy. It’s sweet and figgy with a touch of orange. It’s great, and goes well with a peanut butter cup.

Ingredient Notes

This recipe is flexible and tolerates variation to fit what you have. Use whatever brandy/cognac, orange liqueur, and malty ale you may already have. I used (and recommend) E&J XO Brandy and Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao. As for beer, I used the original Oktoberfest, Paulaner Märzen, straight from Germany, but in hindsight, I’d probably recommend a sweeter American Oktoberfest.

The only specialty ingredient here is Liber & Co’s Caramalized Fig Syrup. It’s amazing, and you should get, but if you don’t have it, you can use demerara syrup, brown sugar syrup, or maybe even cinnamon syrup. If you need to, I suppose you can go with some regular simple syrup.

Recipe Card