This is a part of an occasional series focused on the drinks culture that makes Pittsburgh unique.
If you've ever had a boilermaker, or a shot and a beer if you prefer, you know the drink is about practicality. A real one-and-you're-done approach to the end of the day. And if you were a laborer during the heyday of the industrial revolution in Pittsburgh, this is exactly what you wanted. Long shifts in the mills left little time for luxurious pursuits. Everything you did had to have a point. Even winding down at the end of the day was no time for dawdling.
Said to have originated with the tough, hard-working metal crafters that bear the same name, the boilermaker is still known as a go-to drink when time is short. As steel and other metals dominated manufacturing in the early twentieth century, it's not surprising that the boilermaker is closely associated with Pittsburgh and other industrial cities.
The actual origin of the term boilermaker is not very clear. A popular tale is that of Richard Trevithick of Cornwall, England who set out to test his design of a steam-powered vehicle on Christmas night, 1801. When his vehicle successfully climbed the hill to the village, he and his friends went to a pub to celebrate. No one remembered to douse the fire in the machine's boiler and when they returned, it had been reduced to rubble. Of course, no one knows if Trevithick was actually having a shot and beer that evening. True or not, the drink will always be associated with tough, blue-collar work.
More than a simple shot and beer
A boilermaker is a simple drink by nature, again the practicality. But there are many popular varieties and over-the-top offshoots. Even if you think of the drink as simply a shot of whiskey followed by a beer chaser, you have quite a variety of combinations available that can easily vary by city. Maybe an Anchor Steam beer with Bourbon for San Francisco; Labatt Blue and Crown for Buffalo. Or, for our friends south of the border, perhaps Corona and Tequila.
If you want to stick to a traditional Pittsburgh boilermaker, though, you'd better make it an Iron City beer with Imperial Whiskey. Otherwise known as an “Imp 'n' Ahn”. I won't get into Pittsburgh yinzer-speak. That's someone else's article. Making it is simple:
- 10 ounces Iron City beer
- 1.5 ounces Imperial Whiskey
Drop a clean shot glass of the whiskey directly into the beer and chug away. In a few short minutes, the whole practicality thing will become clear.
If you're not the bar-type, here's a fun way to enjoy a boilermaker as a dessert. I leave you with Ellie Delancey's Boilermaker Cupcakes published on her “The Bitchin' Kitchin'” blog. She made these for the Steelers' Superbowl last year. They look absolutely delicious. I bet they are even better with an Imp 'n' Ahn by their side.
Do you know of some other great variations of the boilermaker or drinks that make Pittsburgh unique? Let me know in the comments below. Be sure to subscribe to this feed for more on Pittsburgh drinks.
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