Single malt whiskey may not be your first choice when making a cocktail, but it can be an interesting and versatile addition to your cocktail repertoire, especially with the bolder American styles of the barley-based spirit. The best-known malt whiskey cocktail is the Rob Roy, which is basically a Manhattan with malt whiskey, typically Scotch, instead of rye or bourbon. While the swap makes for a completely different flavor profile, malt whiskey can be used in just about any cocktail that calls for whiskey with a little tweaking. At Old Line Spirits in Baltimore, Maryland, the focus is on American single malt whiskey, which is reflected in the seasonally rotating menu of the Ready Room Bar.
“Old Line was founded by Mark McLaughlin and me in 2016,” says Old Line co-founder Arch Watkins. “We focus on American single malt whiskey. We do have an aged Caribbean rum and a vodka, and for the first several years we focused on getting those out to the local area. We discovered that we could open a full cocktail bar in Maryland, and in 2018, we opened the Ready Room as a way to highlight that our American single malt whiskey has the versatility of any American whiskey. It does well in most of the cocktails that bourbon or rye will do well in.”
The menu rotates seasonally, although the most popular cocktails tend to stick around with slight seasonal tweaks. The bar manager will typically come up with an outline for the next season’s drinks and the team will go over everything together, ensuring that crowd favorites stay on the menu in some form and that the whiskey remains the focus of the cocktail. While many folks believe American single malt whiskey — or any malt whiskey for that matter — doesn’t work well in cocktails, the team at Old Line is ready to change hearts and minds.
“The biggest challenge is that the public doesn’t think of American single malt as something they would use in a cocktail,” Watkins says. “A lot of that comes from the fact that traditional single malts are aged in used barrels, and the flavor components that are developed in used barrels aren’t really as universally compatible with cocktails as an American whiskey. Our version of American single malt is aged in first-use white oak barrels the same way a bourbon or rye is aged. As a result, you can swap in our American single malt the same way you swap a bourbon for a rye in a cocktail. As a result, we sell a ton of Old Fashioneds [and] Manhattans, cocktails you wouldn’t typically think would stand up with a traditional single malt. The biggest challenge really is that education piece, which is one of the reasons we opened the cocktail bar.”
New recipes come through collaboration from the entire bar team. Often someone will want to incorporate a specific cocktail style or ingredient and then it’s all hands on deck to find the right combination of ingredients or the right balance to showcase the Old Line American single malt whiskeys.
Currently, the team are highlighting their own riff on the Scofflaw cocktail, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. It is said to have been created during American Prohibition in 1924 at Harry’s Bar in Paris, France by a bartender known simply as Jock and was named for the Americans who continued to buy and consume beverage alcohol despite the nationwide ban in place at the time. “I guess someone wanted to come up with a word that describes the spirit drinker in a negative light, and the word that they came up with was scofflaw,” says Watkins. “So, we took that recipe and came up with an iteration which uses our American single malt whiskey.”
Many of the cocktail recipes at the Ready Room Bar start as something else, like a mezcal cocktail or a traditional bourbon or rye cocktail, and get tweaked to suit the use of American single malt whiskey, then they are given names that nod to the founding duo’s naval aviation service. The bar has a lot of local regulars and hosts many people for cocktails, cocktail classes, and, afterwards, distillery tours.
“On Saturdays, we open the place for tours. So folks will come in, grab a drink, they’ll do their tour, come back, and maybe have another drink or two. And we also have a pretty active whiskey club, which is called the Quarterdeck Whiskey Cub. We’ll have a happy hour once a month for the club members.”
Club members have the opportunity to vote on single barrel releases they can purchase from the distillery. Members are also given up to one free tour per day, one free ounce of whiskey per tour, and more with the presentation of the member’s challenge coin.
Legacy bottles from previous bottlings are sometimes released at the distillery’s gift shop. Some releases, like the Ohana release, finished in double oak Cognac and Armagnac barrels, are only available at the distillery. A portion of proceeds from that bottling goes to the Ohana Foundation, which supports charities such as K9s for Warriors and the Children’s Tumor Foundation.Above all, Watkins and McLaughlin like to nod to their service as naval aviators throughout the business, and the Ready Room Bar is no exception.
“The Ready Room is the central hub for the aviators in a squadron on an aircraft carrier where missions are briefed and debriefed, meetings are held, and movies and other lighter recreation takes place,” explains Watkins. “As former aviators, Mark and I wanted the distillery bar to hold that center point of fun, with a smidge of professionalism. Scattered around the bar are relics of that world — we have tailhooks from various aircraft, an old ready room chair from the USS Enterprise, a refueling probe from an EA-6B Prowler, and a gun barrel from an F/A-18 Hornet.”
The Ready Room Bar is located in the Old Line Distillery in Baltimore, Maryland. It is open Friday 4–9pm and Saturday 1–9pm. Build-your-own whiskey and rum flights are also available. Learn more at oldlinespirits.com.
Bull Halsey
Ingredients
• 2oz Old Line American Single Malt Whiskey
• 0.75oz dry vermouth
• 0.25oz Campari
• 0.25oz triple sec
• 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
• Garnish: lemon peel
Method
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass or shaker. Fill the shaker with ice. Stir for 20–25 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
American Scofflaw
Ingredients
• 1.5oz Old Line American Single Malt Whiskey
• 1oz dry vermouth
• 0.5oz grenadine
• 0.5oz fresh lemon juice
• 5 dashes orange bitters
• Garnish: lemon peel
Method
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled then strain into a coupe.
Old Charm Square
Method
• 1oz Old Line American Single Malt Whiskey
• 1oz brandy
• 0.25oz Benedictine
• 0.75oz sweet vermouth
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
• Garnish: lemon peel
Ingredients
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass or shaker. Fill the shaker with ice. Stir for 20–25 seconds. Strain into rocks glass over fresh ice.
Dawn Watch
Ingredients
• 1.5oz Old Line American Single Malt Whiskey
• 1oz cold brew coffee
• 0.5oz dry curaçao
• 0.5oz maple syrup
• 3 dashes black walnut bitters
• Garnish: flamed orange peel
Method
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled then strain into a coupe.
Radar Lock
Ingredients
• 1.5oz Case 1 Rum Madeira Cask Finish
• 1.5oz sweet vermouth
• 0.5oz maraschino liqueur
• 4 dashes orange bitters
• Garnish: lemon peel
Method
Combine all ingredients into a mixing glass or cocktail shaker. Fill the shaker with ice. Stir for 20–25 seconds then strain into a coupe.
Navy Strength Manhattan
Ingredients
• 2oz Old Line Navy Strength American Single Malt Whiskey
• 1oz sweet vermouth
• 5 dashes Angostura bitters
• Garnish: cocktail cherry
Method
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker or mixing glass. Fill the shaker with ice. Stir for 25-25 seconds, strain into a coupe.
Winchester
Ingredients
• 1oz Old Line American Single Malt Whiskey
• 1oz mezcal
• 0.5oz Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro
• 0.25oz demerara simple syrup
• 0.25oz fresh lemon juice
• Garnish: dehydrated lemon
Method
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake until well chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
