Some things in life just go together. Peanut butter and jelly. Mickey and Minnie. Cookies and milk. If you ask me, there’s another thing that belongs in that list. Whiskey and campfires.
Maybe it’s because it makes me feel like John Wayne on the open plains after a day of roping cattle with my rifle in hand. Or maybe the smoky, slightly sweet flavors just echo everything I love about a fire and the food you can cook on it. Whatever it is, drinking whiskey by a fire just feels right for me.
If it feels right for you too, then you’re probably wondering what the best whiskeys for a campfire are? Well have no fear, I’ve tried and tested them all for you and found five great options. Keep in mind these aren’t necessarily the best 5 whiskeys or my favorite 5, but 5 whiskeys that just feel right to drink by a fire.
#1 Bulleit Bourbon
Most whiskey connoisseurs will at least have heard of Bulleit Bourbon. While they actually were founded in 1987, one look at their bottle will have you thinking of the Old West and days gone by. The glass bottle is proudly embossed with “Frontier Whiskey” and truly looks out of an old western movie at first glance. In fact, that is the goal fo this award winning whiskey. To not only taste great, but take you back in time.
This of course plays perfectly for the campfire. While the classier among us might pour whiskey into glasses or cups instead of drinking straight from the bottle, there is something special about passing a whiskey bottle around a campfire. It evokes fellowship that can’t easily be replicated. So when you get passed the plain glass bottle with the simple label of “Frontier Whiskey”, you’ll feel like a cowboy on the Plains.
Now, truth be told, you’ll never really be able to drink whiskey like the frontiersman of old. At least, you won’t want to. Back then, there were few laws regulating what producers actually made and branded as “whiskey”. Much of it was rotgut (aptly named) whiskey which wasn’t actually aged. Any flavor came from additives instead of the aging process. Much of what was considered “bourbon” was actually brewed from low-grade molasses. Any high quality whiskeys that would get shipped from the East or Europe would likely be watered down by merchants trying to earn the biggest bang for their buck with supplies low and demand high.
An example recipe from this time period for “Ol’ Snakehead” exists, and you won’t believe what was inside:
1 gal. alcohol.
1 lb. plug or black twist of tobacco for color.
1 lb. black strap molasses for flavor.
1 handful red Spanish peppers for spice.
5 gal. river water.
2 rattlesnake heads per barrel. This gives it “spirit.”
Then drop in a horseshoe. If the shoe sinks, it ain’t ready yet but when it rises to the surface and floats, the whiskey is ready to drink.
So maybe Bulleit Bourbon isn’t REALLY reminiscent of what they drank back in the days of the wild frontier. But for me, I’ll take all the packaging and feel of the old west without the rattlesnake heads and river water.
#2 Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel
Maybe the second thing that should go with campfires after whiskey, is s’mores. I’ll still always hear The Sandlot in the back of my mind everytime a group of friends gather around a fire with a pack of hershey’s chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers.
“Smalls, you want a s’more?”
“Some more of what?”
“YOU’RE KILLING ME SMALLS!”
Well the second whiskey on our list is for you Ham Porter. It’s about the closest you can get to the wonderful taste of freshly made s’mores from the campfire in a whiskey form.
Elijah Craig is sometimes credited as the inventor of bourbon, though that’s likely not factual. He was, however, a preacher in the late 1700s who did begin a distillery and become a successful businessman in Kentucky, the home of bourbon. Today, Heaven Hill Distilleries, a company founded in the 1930s, has taken his name and legacy to produce some of the most renowned bourbon across all of the United States.
While any Elijah Craig bourbon you taste today won’t at all resemble the historical version of the late 1700s or early 1800s, it does have an interesting history behind it. Being produced by Heaven Hill (the name in whiskey distribution) also means you’ll find it available almost anywhere liquor is sold for decent prices.
But don’t think that being name-brand doesn’t make it great or even unique. Specifically, the Toasted Barrel batch is made by taking the fully matured burboun and finishing it in a custom toasted new oak barrel to add extra sweetness. The result makes a bourbon that keeps it caramel and smoky qualities but adds on extra layers of a toasty sweetness that many drinkers have related to toasted marshmallows.
Sound familiar? Yep, it’s the great combination of bitter, earthy, sweet, and smoky that every great s’more brings to life. Just in whiskey form. Perfect for your next campfire.
#3 Ardbeg 10
A lot of people don’t drink whiskey for anything sweet, though. They like the earthy, peaty, smoky characteristics that can only come through a glass of neat scotch that feels warm and just right for a campfire.
I’ve got you covered as well with a bottle of Ardbeg 10. Aged for 10 years, Arbeg markets their islay scotch malt at the peatiest, smokiest, most complex whiskey of them all. One taste and you’re probably going to agree – it really plays on the earthy, smoky tastes that made whiskey from Scotland so famous to begin with.
And if you think bourbon has a history, scotch goes all the way back to at least 1494, where written records show scotch being distilled. Spending most of its life as something that was smuggled amongst Scottish villages to avoid taxation, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that scotch found international popularity. Due to a beetle infestation of many French vineyards, alcohol drinkers had to find a new fix due to low supplies of brandy and wines from Europe. Scotch was introduced, and never looked back.
The unique characteristic that scotch presented over other types of alcohol was its smokiness. This comes from the very beginning of the scotch-making process, where “peat” (which is basically an accumulation of dead plants, dirt, and swamp matter that exists throughout Scotland) is burned to heat up barley that is being malted to stop the germination process. This allows it to retain its sugars which are needed later on in the distillation process to create alcohol. The unintended, or may intended, consequence this had was the smoky character that came from burning peat stayed with the barley and made its way into the finished product.
While the idea of drinking dead vegetation in the bottom of Scottish swamps might not sound tasty, it is what brings scotch the unique flavor that Ron Swanson loved. And that unique flavor feels perfect for a campfire, and brings a certain circle of life to a process that started with burning peat back to a fire thousands of miles and years away from the beginning.
#4 Ole Smokey Moonshine
Since we’re talking about unique distillation processes, we should transition into the real Wild West of alcohol making – moonshine. If you’re an American you probably know the story, but in the early 1900s due to an amalgamation of factors the United States government outlawed alcohol. Naturally, most people didn’t stop drinking. They just started hiding it from the government.
Amongst those hiding from the government were moonshiners, men and women in the hills of Appalachia who used copper stills to distill grains into high-proof liquors. However, what you may not know is this happened long before the Prohibition Era. As long as there have been people producing alcohol there have been governments taxing it. And when early Americans didn’t want to pay taxes, they took to the hills of rural Appalachia to produce alcohol in the dead of night (where “moonshine” got its name) in secret.
So what could be better for a campfire than a jug of moonshine? It was made in some of the most beautiful nature in Appalachia, it should be enjoyed out in nature by a fire as well. Unfortunately, actual moonshine is illegal to purchase for a variety of reasons. Potential contamination and absurdly high alcohol content levels being chief among them. But, there are still options available for you that get kind of close.
Ole Smokey Distillery was created in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, right in the middle of the Smoky Mountains where moonshiners once roamed wild. They are a completely legal operation that takes their history and creates flavored alcohols marketed as “moonshines” which are similar to the creations of their forefathers. While not technically “moonshine”, they are about as close as you can get legally. And pretty tasty too.
Because traditional moonshine is nearly unpalatable, they have much lower proof options mixed with flavors you may actually want to drink. Lemon drop, apple pie, and others are actually quite tasty while resembling the feel and profile of traditional moonshine. But if you’re looking for something as true as can be bought legally to the past – try their fusion with Popcorn Sutton “Likker”. Popcorn Sutton was a very famous moonshiner who eventually committed suicide to prevent prison time related to his illegal alcohol making. “Likker” is made in tandem with his late wife and pays homage to his legacy.
Moonshine is of course still made widely today, but is highly illegal and frankly, doesn’t taste good to begin with. So go with Ole Smokey instead.
#5 Bushmills
So we’ve covered cowboys, moonshiners, s’mores, and smokiness. What else do you think of when you think of campfires? For me, the last thing I think of are long nights spent with my father by the fire, hearing him tell stories from childhood and days gone by. Part of the beauty of sitting by the fire isn’t the fire itself, but the time it gives you without distractions to talk and tell stories with the ones you love.
So why not drink a whiskey that has a long tradition in storytelling? Bushmills whiskey shares its name with the township where it was created. The Old Bushmills Distillery was created in 1784, though their label dates back their whiskey back to 1608 when another distiller was given license to distribute whiskey in the area. The distillery is still located in the Town which now has a population of just over 1,000 residents.
Irish whiskeys are famous because, surprise surprise, they are made in Ireland. A country known for drinking a good dram in the local pub and sharing stories. Bushmills is no exception, as one story tells about the fire that destroyed the distillery in 1885.
The ferocious fire claimed 13 lives, but not in the way you might think. The fire took ablaze in the distillery’s storeroom and all of the barrels caught fire. This allowed the sweet nectar inside, whiskey, to flow freely down the streets of Bushmill. Not wanting the flammable liquid to cause fires throughout town, the good townspeople of Bushmill began drinking the whiskey as it ran. By the coming day there were no lives lost in the fire, but 13 townsfolk were killed by alcohol poisoning.
If you drink enough Bushmills, you might even come up with a better yarn yourself.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve learned a little about whiskey history, process, and will have a new appreciation for whatever whiskey you decide to share with your loved ones around the next campfire. No matter what you drink, or if you drink at all, the memories shared and the traditions created are the important things to remember. I hope you have the opportunity to do so.
Do you have a favorite whiskey story? A favorite drink to share by the fire? Let us know!