Mom had her special day—hopefully you spoiled her—and now it’s Dad’s turn. And while a top-notch bottle always makes a great gift, let’s think about something you can mix up for an experience your dad won’t soon forget.
For tips on what to offer your dad on Father’s Day—it’s June 16 this year, by the way—we reached out to some distillery dads for some winning cocktail recipes to try at home.
The Slush
Our first distilling dad splits time between his ophthalmology practice and making whiskey at his family-owned distillery in San Antonio, just a block west of the Alamo. Kenneth Maverick founded Maverick Distilling as a nod to his family’s ancestor—Samuel Maverick, an Alamo survivor and cattle rancher, is the source of the word “maverick.”
This year, Kenneth Maverick says his team is gearing up for the special release of a hand-picked, bottled-in-bond four-year bourbon, timed to coincide with Father’s Day. “It’s a special time for us since I’m a dad, so I thought it would be the perfect weekend for this release.”
Visitors to the distillery that day can choose a private VIP tour that involves private tastings in small groups or a tour of the barrel vault. Afterward, they can visit the distillery lounge for flights of exclusives such as the Samuel Maverick Straight Triticale Whiskey, Maverick’s agave spirits, and even gins. Cocktails are also on hand, naturally, making for a festive afternoon. (For those who can’t make it to San Antonio, the spirits are available on the distillery’s website; they can ship to 39 states plus D.C.)
This Maverick-approved cocktail is a refreshing, easy-to-make crowd-pleaser. The citrus components offer a bright juxtaposition to the sweet tea, whose earthy flavors mesh with the bourbon’s sweeter notes. And as a frozen drink, it complements smoky barbecue and backyard gatherings. You’ll want to plan ahead and make it the night before.
Photo: Courtesy Maverick Distilling
Maverick Bourbon Slush
2 cup chilled black sweet tea
12 oz frozen orange juice concentrate
12 oz frozen lemonade concentrate
2 cup Samuel Maverick Straight Bourbon Whiskey
For the sweet tea: Add four black-tea bags to 32 oz boiling water and turn off the heat; add 1½ cup sugar or honey, stir to dissolve, cover, and steep for 3–4 minutes. Remove the tea bags. Chill the tea in the refrigerator before mixing.
For the slush: Mix all the ingredients in a container with a tight-fitting lid and freeze. Once frozen, scoop into glasses, and garnish with a Luxardo cherry or sprig of mint. (If you prefer a stronger kick, add a bourbon floater on top of the drink.)
The Smoke
Mavericks in their own right, Joe and Missy Duer are cofounders of Indian Creek Distillery in New Carlisle, Ohio, on Missy’s sixth-generation family farm.
Specializing in small-batch whiskey—rye is their calling card—they always have something new to taste at the distillery. It’s a special location; the family’s distilling history on the current site dates to 1820. What was once a bustling local distillery lay dormant for 92 years before the Duers inherited the farm and revived the legacy.
The Duers organize a special event for Father’s Day: the Summertime Sip ‘n’ Smoke at the Stillhouse. Teaming up with local cigar lounges, they offer a tasting and learning experience, pairing cigars with spirits and cocktails—and, naturally, there is a smoked cocktail.
Joe Duer is a cigar lover himself, and he prefers to enjoy them with brown spirits. These two recipes—one with bourbon, another with rye—are guaranteed to please Dad, with or without the stogie.
Smokin’ Nola Old Fashioned
The Duers bottle their own maple syrup, which is cultivated nearby and rests in their rye-whiskey barrels.
2 oz Indian Creek Seven Staleys American Bourbon Whiskey
½–¾ oz Indian Creek Stillhouse Maple Syrup
4 dashes chicory-pecan bitters (or black walnut bitters)
Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass with cubed ice. Stir well and strain into a rocks glass over a king cube. Place a cocktail smoker atop the glass, add one pinch of cherrywood chips, and heat with a flame for 2–3 seconds. Allow the glass to smoke for several minutes; remove the smoker and garnish with a cocktail cherry.
Campfire Companion
This one is great for folks who may not typically drink whiskey. The blueberries, maple syrup, orange bitters, and cinnamon bring a sweet, spicy, juicy mix, while the smoke adds the summertime campfire vibe. (Make this one outdoors.) For the smoke, any typical barbecue wood for smoking will do, but Joe prefers mesquite.
6 fresh blueberries
1½ oz Indian Creek Staley Rye Whiskey
½ oz Indian Creek Stillhouse Maple Syrup
3 dashes orange bitters
1 pinch ground cinnamon
Place a handful of mesquite chips on a cutting board or piece of flat wood. Light the chips until you have a good flame going, then place a Mason jar upside-down over the chips and allow the jar to fill with smoke. In another Mason jar, muddle the blueberries, then add the other ingredients and a few cubes of ice; stir well. Strain the liquid into the smoke-filled jar and add a handful of fresh ice.
The Smash
Back in the Lone Star state, Milam & Greene Whiskey in Blanco, Texas, is hosting a Bottle Your Own Whiskey event on Father’s Day weekend. On hand will be a four- to five-year-old single-barrel bourbon, plus barbecue and live music.
To cool down in the Texas heat, they’ll be serving up one of CEO and master blender Heather Greene’s favorite cocktails.
Photo: Courtesy Milam & Greene Whiskey
The Hill Country Smash
This cocktail is another fine example that complements bold food flavors without losing sight of the star of the show: the whiskey. The sparkling water and lemon add effervescence and brightness, lifting what would otherwise be sweet and viscous.
1 freshly peeled peach
½ oz simple syrup
2 oz Milam & Greene Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Casks
½ oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
1–2 oz sparkling water
Muddle the peeled peach, add the simple syrup, then add the whiskey and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker. Add a handful of cubed ice and shake well. Strain over fresh ice and top with sparkling water. Garnish with a fresh peach slice.
The Well-Marbled
Sagamore Spirit in Baltimore has big plans for Father’s Day weekend at their waterfront campus, including live music and the release of a distillery-exclusive rye whiskey finished on Albariño wine casks. The distillery will also lead a cocktail class on Father’s Day morning, inviting guests to learn from a pro.
Sagamore bar manager Jonathan Chittenden shares this recipe for their featured cocktail on Father’s Day. It takes a bit of planning but is sure to win over bacon and whiskey lovers. Cask-strength rye is a key component; the whiskey needs to stand up to not only the fat and smokiness of the bacon, but also to the sweetness of the liqueur and vanilla syrup.
Photo: Courtesy Sagamore Spirit
The Dad Bod
If you’re serving a mixed crowd of meat lovers and vegetarians, you can fat wash half a bottle of rye with half the fat.
2 oz bacon fat–washed Sagamore Spirit Cask Strength Rye Whiskey
½ oz orange whiskey liqueur
½ oz Madagascar vanilla syrup
2 dashes Sagamore Spirit Aromatic Bitters
To fat-wash the whiskey: Add 1 cup of warm (not sizzling) bacon fat to 1 bottle of rye in a pitcher. Stir well, cover tightly with a lid, and place in a freezer until the fat has solidified. Using a spoon, remove the solidified fat while it’s still cold. Allow the whiskey to reach room temperature, then strain through a cheesecloth and funnel back into a bottle.
For the cocktail: Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice, stir well, and strain over a king cube. Garnish with a Fig Newton.
The Salad
Carrot is all the rage in cocktails right now—perhaps because it’s a jack of all trades as an ingredient. Carrots can add sweetness without sweeteners, they can add savory and earthy flavors, and their color is striking. If you want to tackle an expert-level cocktail for a dad who prefers vodka or gin, these next two carrot-driven cocktails deliver the goods.
Denver’s Family Jones distillery has a knack for unique cocktails that feel familiar and approachable at the first sip. Through a partnership with local farmers, the Family Jones establishes agricultural connections to their expressions. Meanwhile, their Spirit House serves small plates of food with eclectic flavors, and the cocktails need to stand up to those flavors while showcasing their house spirits.
So, while a cocktail made with carrot and jalapeño flavors seems out there, the folks at Family Jones assure us that it delivers with big, fresh, bright flavors. Besides the complexity of the infused vodka, the carrot syrup is worth the time and effort to make. It adds an umami punch to the overall flavor, complementing the honey without being overly sweet; the jalapeño heat and citrus bring spicy balance.
Photo: Courtesy the Family Jones
10 Carrot Necklace
1 oz homemade carrot syrup
1½ oz jalapeño-infused Annika Jones Vodka
¾ oz lemon juice
½ oz honey
To make 1 liter of carrot syrup: Peel 15 whole, fresh carrots and soak them in sugar water—equal parts sugar and water—for 30 minutes. Juice the carrots in a juicer. Combine 650 ml of fresh carrot juice with 300 ml simple syrup and 50 ml of honey, stirring well to combine. Chill for 24 hours.
For the drink: In a cocktail shaker, combine all the ingredients with a handful of cubed ice, shake well, and strain over fresh pebble or cubed ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a carrot tuile, mint sprig, and dried lemon slice.
The Exorcism
In Salem, Massachusetts, Ian Hunter and Jesse Brenneman—dads, the both of them—founded the Deacon Giles Distillery in 2015. The name comes from a prohibitionist tract written in the 1830s about a fictional Salem distiller, Deacon Amos Giles, who gets some help from demons; in fact, the story was a thinly veiled attack on the local distiller, John Stone.
Known for its rum and gin, Deacon Giles also has an impressive cocktail bar called the Speakeasy Lab. This recipe from the bar—also involving carrots—is perfect for the dad who considers himself a cocktail aficionado. Peter Marsala, mixologist at Deacon Giles, says this is a cocktail “built in anticipation of changing seasons.”
“The unexpected combination of bright carrot and earthy pomegranate ... creates a new, almost candy-like flavor,” he says. “Perfect for a cookout, this cocktail is versatile with both sweet and savory flavor notes, which will pair exceedingly well with a wide range of food. Seeking to bring a unique twist to a delightfully simple gin cocktail, carrots pair surprisingly well with juniper, and the Triple Sec and grenadine bring classic cocktail flair to what would otherwise be a simple sour.”
Photo: Courtesy Deacon Giles Distillery
Punx Prog
2 oz carrot-infused Deacon Giles Dry Gin
½ oz homemade grenadine
½ oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz Triple Sec
For the carrot infusion: Combine 150 g of cleaned carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces, with 750 ml dry gin in a blender; blend lightly for 10–15 seconds. Pour the blended mixture into a bowl or pitcher, cover, and let sit for 1–2 hours, or overnight, to infuse. Pour the mixture through cheesecloth or a fine strainer (or both) to strain out the carrot pulp and funnel the gin back into the bottle. (This infused gin will keep indefinitely, though the color will fade over time.)
For the grenadine: Combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup pomegranate juice in a small saucepan. Heat to a simmer, stirring regularly until the sugar is dissolved. Remove the mixture from the heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Add a dash of orange-blossom water (optional) and stir to combine. Allow to fully cool to room temperature before using. Can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
For the drink: Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, shake well with cubed ice, and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.