Bartenders of Milwaukee, Hayward, Racine and Kenosha unite!

December 31, 2016 5:45 AM

How do you make a Wisconsin Old Fashion? Beyond the googled recipe.

For New Years Eve I've committed myself to making the penultimate Wisconsin Old Fasion (sweet). Recipes online indicate the general ingredients of brandy, bitters, orange slice, cherry and sprite. But the directions with all the muddling of things and the dashes of things all seem way too fancy and fussy for a drink made likely 1000 times a night at the supper club. So how do bartenders make an Old Fashion behind the cheddar curtain?

posted by blackjack514 to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

At its very most basic: Combine 2 ounces of Korbel brandy, sugar syrup and 2-3 dashes of Angostura bitters in a double OF glass. Add ice. Top with Sprite (sweet), sour mix (sour), half each of Sprite and seltzer (press; short for "Presbyterian") or seltzer (soda). Add orange slice (or orange and lemon) and cherry as garnish. There is no version more basic than this. Muddling the fruit is something plenty of places do, which may be either with the liquids or with granulated or cubed sugar. We're not talking about a real mangling here; just enough to crush the fruit.

If you've had trouble finding good sources online it may be your search terms. Look for "Brandy Old Fashioned" not "Wisconsin Old Fashion."
posted by slkinsey at 6:43 AM on December 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

There is no shortcut to muddling and dashes for a proper old fashioned. That's how bartenders do it.
posted by bitdamaged at 6:51 AM on December 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, I should hasten to add that low end places are just slopping some "Finest Call Old Fashioned" mix (a commercial product), a slug of Korbel and the topper of choice into a glass with ice, then chucking in a garnish and sending it out.

bitdamaged: Wisconsin's Brandy OF is a culture unto itself. Also, most of the best cocktail places nowadays discountenance the mid century muddled "fruit salad" and simply combine spirit, sugar and bitters with an expressed citrus peel or two on large lump ice.
posted by slkinsey at 6:54 AM on December 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

Skip the cherry and throw a couple olives in there. Ambrosia.
posted by ian1977 at 6:55 AM on December 31, 2016

Here's an article where Milwaukee bartenders talk about old fashioned which includes a few "recipes"
posted by drezdn at 6:57 AM on December 31, 2016 [4 favorites]

There's actually an exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum that mentions about how/why Korbel is the base of a Wisconsin OF.
posted by drezdn at 7:04 AM on December 31, 2016

I don't know this particular drink, (apart from a just-now google), but I've worked bar plenty, and while it might seem fussy and fancy, the trick is really just preparation, knowing where everything is, and knowing what you're doing. (mise en place is the fancy term)
So slice a bunch of oranges beforehand, have the cherries stemmed/toothpicked as necessary, keep them in tubs in one location, maybe pre-make the pretty garnish bits during downtime.
To solve the whole complexity of the dash issue (it's 5ml.), just splash the Angostura bottle onto a sugarcube - once, twice, whatever, when it's wet, that's enough, chuck it in.
The muddling is just to mash the fruit/sugar a bit - 3 seconds of mashing a slice or 2 at the bottom of the glass with a muddling-stick. If you've misplaced yours, you can borrow your apothecary's pestle, or just crush the fruit a bit in the glass with a spoon.
This sounds like something I'd want crushed ice with - wrap icecubes in a clean teatowel and anoint with violence. DON'T attempt to muddle/crush the ice in the glass - your day may end poorly.
Add the brandy. Depending on where you are you may be able to free-pour or use measured pourers or a jigger. Measure if you want consistent product, free pour if you're allowed to and know your business, drinks, & clients.
Add the mixer. Hopefully there's a postmix gun or font. If you have to use bottles, big ones are cheaper, but will go flat quicker/lead to inconsistent product.

Caveat: Australian bartender who doesn't actually know the drink in question. But would like one very much please.
posted by quinndexter at 7:25 AM on December 31, 2016 [4 favorites]

Home versions of the Wisconsin OF use Sierra Mist, not Sprite or 7-up. And while cherries are standard, at better supper clubs you can also get olives, pickled onions, mushrooms, anchovies, or brussel sprouts. I have heard tell that occasionally one will find a place offering a small fish, like a whole smelt, served frozen so it doubles as a stirrer, but that may be a tall tale.

Bourbon is also acceptable, even preferable to brandy. Occasionally people order rye.
posted by carmicha at 7:37 AM on December 31, 2016 [3 favorites]

Bourbon is delicious but if you want a real Wisconsin old fashioned it better be brandy.
posted by notjustthefish at 7:49 AM on December 31, 2016 [9 favorites]

I've ordered Wisconsin OFs at a few places in Wisconsin, and can verify what bitdamaged says - they actually do throw all the stuff in there and muddle it with the dashes of bitters and all. It doesn't take too long - sugar, fruit, bitters, booze, stompstompstomp, ice, soda, done.
posted by LionIndex at 8:04 AM on December 31, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I worked in a north-west Wisconsin "supper club" style restaurant about 20 years ago. Here is how we made 100's of brandy old fashioned every night. Note, these were not considered "artisanal" cocktails. This was us making and serving these as cheaply and quickly as we could while maintaining some degree of authenticity.

ingredients:
sugar
Angostura bitters
sliced oranges
maraschino cherries
J. Bavet or Korbel brandy
7up or sprite-

Put 2 teaspoons sugar in a tub glass
add 2 dashes angostura bitters (easy does it, 2 dashes is maybe 1/8 teaspoon)
drop a cherry and orange slice into the glass
add a splash of 7up
repeatedly crush the cherry and orange slice into the sugar to get the juices out of them (note, we used wooden muddles for this. for a home bar situation, the back of a spoon would work fine)
fill tub glass with ice
add 2 oz brandy
fill remainder of glass with 7up/sprite
garnish with orange/cherry flag

Like I said, not artisanal cocktails. We made 100's of these every day and sold them for about $3.50 a pop as I recall. It got the blue-hairs loaded and kept me from having to get a real job for a while.

interesting and tasty variations:
substitute whiskey or southern comfort for brandy
substitute Squirt or sour mix for seven up
when going sour, olives make a better garnish
posted by cosmicbandito at 1:25 PM on December 31, 2016 [7 favorites]

TIL that supper clubs exist and have a signature cocktail which sounds like a sidecar but maybe not so cloying.

In conclusion, America is a land of contrasts.
posted by radicalawyer at 7:06 AM on March 2, 2017