Name that Drink

Yesterday afternoon, Michael and I were working in the barbeque pit, grilling vegetables for last night's cookout, and quite by accident invented a new drink. I had earlier poured some whisky into a generic juice glass. As everyone knows, we usually drink good whisky out of these crystal highball glasses that Susan found when her parents moved out of their home. I'm certain that the glasses were never used previously, but I figured, if we're going to drink good whisky, why not drink it from a good glass? However, because we were working outside in the pit, I didn't want to risk an accident, so I was using an everyday juice glass. Anyway, Mike asked me did I want to split a Hopdevil with him? (There is a recent posting about Hopedevil, brewed by the Victory Brewing Company.) Of course. So he brought a bottle out from the fridge, and thinking that the brown liquid in my juice glass was the end of en earlier beer, he poured the Hopdevil on top of my malt.

Now maybe a fussier drinker would have poured that mixture out, but I gave it a taste, and lo and behold, it was great. The strong hoppy flavor of the Hopdevil complimented the malt perfectly. I should point out that I wasn't drinking anything great before this happy accident. The malt was this fairly inexpensive 12 year old highland called 'The Speyside'. We bought it because John knows the daughter of the guy who is marketing this whisky in the US. Apparently, It comes from a fairly new distillery, built on the site of an old scotch distillery known as Drumguish. The malt was ok, nothing special, but also reasonably inexpensive, under $30. I point this out only because I'm not sure that anyone would want to use a really fine malt, say Macallan 17, or HP 18, for this new concoction. To mix with beer, probably any malt or even a blended scotch will do. My guess is that the drink is better with a single malt, as Hopdevil's flavor is so strong that it might overpower a milder blend, say Dewars, for example. Another thing I should mention -- This drink has a really distinctive flavor, not for the delicate palate, not in the least bit subtle or understated. Therefore, anything short of barbequed meat, or maybe spicy southwestern food, would be totally overpowered by its taste.

I also don't know the proper proportion of beer to whisky. I'm guessing that Mike's mixture was around four to one, but when I make this next (probably at the next barbeque), I think I'll try six to one, in other words, an ounce of malt for a half bottle of beer.

So that brings us to this question -- what's the name for this new cocktail? I would like readers to chime in and make suggestions, and the winner will receive a free steak dinner, and as much red wine and whisky as he or she wants to go with it, served of course in the back yard. I think I'll hold the voting open until July 31; that will give people plenty of time to experiment, both with names and proportions of whisky to beer. Also, I think it will be good if the matter remains unsettled when we gather at Andy's; this will be an excellent topic of debate and discussion. Far better than then usual political talk that everyone wants to engage in this year. Now this may sound unfair, as I am the sponsor of this contest, but I already thought of my own suggestion for the name - A Hophead. Nevertheless, I am not declaring myself the winner at this early stage, although I don't want a lot of whining and complaining if it turns out that, when all is said and done, I end up winning my own contest. (If that happens, I'll make Susan grill my steak that night.) Anyway, submit your suggestions in the comments. Anyone can participate, and can offer as many names as he or she likes. You can even make suggestions without ever trying the new drink, although that would be a bad idea, only because you would deprive yourself of the opportunity to taste this new cocktail.