Hear Me Out: The Boilermaker Is the Perfect Bar Order

There are nights when you walk into the local bar, glance up at the confounding list of hazy IPAs and pastry stouts, or the 10th negroni riff of the week, and the proper course of action suddenly just becomes crystal clear. We’re talking about the best of all respites from the tyranny of “what’s hot, what’s new?” in the beverage alcohol world. We’re talking about the humble–but revered by those in the know–boilermaker. Whether you refer to it by that term, or simply as a “beer and a shot,” or any of its innumerable variations around the world, the boilermaker is a drink order that will always and forever possess a certain, understated je ne sais quoi. And if anything, it feels like an order that has become more popular than ever in recent years, elevated and enshrined in the very upscale cocktail establishments that once would have seen ordering a boilermaker as gauche. We might well be living during the golden era of “beer and a shot,” right now.

But at the same time, truly defining a boilermaker in the first place can be a little bit difficult. One can say, “Well, it’s a beer and a shot of whiskey,” but what beer and what whiskey? Does it even need to be whiskey? Should the two be mixed, or consumed separately? Does it really matter, or did it ever matter? There’s not even a concrete story for why we in the U.S. refer to this drink as a “boilermaker,” although it’s typically assumed that the name reflects the drink’s blue collar, working class tradesman roots. A publication like The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink traces it back to at least the 1890s in Montana, where Irish barkeeps referred to the drink as the “Sean O’Farrell,” whereas The Joy of Mixology says the drink was prized among the steelworkers of western Pennsylvania, which certainly feels thematically on point. That state of Pennsylvania, our modern election bellwether, is tied to the boilermaker like few others–particularly Philadelphia, which has its own beloved regional variant, known as the Citywide Special. That can of PBR and shot of Jim Beam Bourbon can typically be had for less than $5 in Philly dives, even to this day.