This Christmas, Make a Flip

Put eggs in your booze, and eggy booze in your beer.

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Ah, Christmas: A time for beer. A time for brandy. A time for egg drinks. A time for warm drinks. Or, in our case, all of the above: a warm egg drink with beer and brandy — a Hot Ale Flip. 

Perhaps beer isn’t for you, or you don’t want to make any drink that involves a stove. Never fear. Before we get to the hot ale version, I’ll cover its relative, the flip, a simple, delicious sugar-egg-booze combo that, made well, is a decadent, delicate dessert in a glass.  With its whipped egg and sugar components, its notes of cinnamon and fresh nutmeg, the flip is the Christmas cookie of the cocktail world, and it goes just as well with a pair of slippers and a fire, or indeed, a plate of Christmas cookies. 

Like so many cocktails, the flip is best thought of as a cocktail category rather than a specific drink: Just as an Old Fashioned is a spirit balanced by bitters and a sweetener, a flip is a spirit balanced by egg and a sweetener, usually (but not always) some form of sugar. The result is a frothy, foamy concoction that drinks like an even frothier relative of eggnog. In fact, a flip is essentially just an eggnog made without any milk or cream. 

Flips have many virtues: Among them is that they are surprisingly easy to make, relying mostly on a small number of ordinary household ingredients that require minimal preparation and no advance work. 

You make each one individually, making them ideal for smaller groups. In another year, I might have recommended a big pot of warm-and-boozy apple cider toddy or hot grog, but since many holiday gatherings are likely to be smaller, single-serve drinks are a good way to go. I wouldn’t want to make two-dozen flips in an evening — they require a lot of shaking. But I’m more than happy to whip up a post-meal pair. 

Flips are also quite versatile, serving as a showcase for a wide variety of alcohol bases, including some that are relatively low in alcohol, making them good for family gathering where some people might not want a stronger drink. 

That variety also lends itself to a wide variety of tastes and palettes. You can make a boozy, bitter, herbal flip with obscure ingredients if you want. But you just as easily make one with rum or brandy that is delicately sweet and cinnamony. It’s a cocktail nerd drink that works just as well for folks who have no idea what a Manhattan is. 

The Structure of a Flip

But you and I are going to nerd out a little.  One way to define a flip is just that it’s most any cocktail that involves a whole egg. But I prefer to define it by its structure, the balance of components that appears again and again in flip recipes. 

As I’ve argued about other great cocktails, the flip is as much an idea, a system, as it is a specific drink. It’s a way of showcasing a spirit’s connection to other flavors, textures, and ingredients — in this case, egg and sugar.

The combination of egg and sugar means that, perhaps more than any other drink category, flips are designed to transform the texture of the drink. It should be frothy, foamy, a delicate lattice rather than a sugary gloop. In many ways, this is a baker’s drink — you’re whipping up a kind of simple cocktail meringue. 

A very standard flip recipe looks something like this:

• ¾ ounce rich demerara syrup

• 1 whole egg

• 1 ½ ounce brandy or rum

Combine all ingredients in a mixing tin. Seal tin, then dry shake with no ice for 10-15 seconds. Unseal tin, add ice, reseal it, then shake for another 10-15 seconds until fully chilled. Strain into a coupe. Garnish with fresh ground nutmeg. 

There are several things worth noticing about this formula. 

First, it’s surprisingly similar to a basic sour, but with a little less base spirit, and egg instead of citrus. A flip is obviously a very different drink than a sour, but the underlying structures of the drinks aren’t all that different. 

Second, it employs a dry shake — a two-part process where you start by integrating the ingredients via a shake without ice, then add ice and perform a second shake for chill and dilution. The initial no-ice shake should be quite vigorous, as you’re trying to integrate some gooey components that don’t combine easily, and you don’t have to worry about ice shards or dilution. Put some muscle into it! 

As I noted in the newsletter on how to shake a cocktail, dry shakes are relatively rare, in part because they are employed almost exclusively for drinks involving egg or other dairy products. One reason to make a flip is that it’s a good way to experiment with or improve your dry shake. 

Third, the sweetener component in the above recipe is ¾ of an ounce of a rich (2:1/sugar:water) syrup. That works well in a standard recipe relying on a higher-proof liquor like rum, brandy, or rye. But flips often employ lower-proof spirits like sherry and amaro as well, and those lower proof spirits typically have a sweeter flavor profile than a slug of brandy or rum. Which means the added syrup/sweetener might need to be adjusted down or even eliminated entirely. 

Finally, the drink is garnished with freshly grated nutmeg. Just as most Old Fashioned recipes call for a thin strip of orange peel as garnish, which accents the drink’s aroma and adds visual appeal, most flip recipes call for a top of grated nutmeg. Sometimes you’ll see other spices employed, such as a cinnamon stick or star anise. In some instances, you’ll see a flip topped with a layer of bitters, which add their own kind of spice notes. 

Whatever the recipe calls for, the garnish on a flip is quite important and shouldn’t be left out. It’s not there as an affectation, or just to make the drink look pretty. It changes the flavor of the drink, adding a subtle but non-trivial spice note. That extra aromatic element makes an especially big difference in an egg drink, since egg brings relatively little in the way of flavor; the egg is mainly there to froth the drink and transform its texture. You need to add flavor where you can, hence the nutmeg (or other spice) garnish. It’s an essential part of a flip’s flavor profile. 

Let’s Make Some Flip Variations

Now that you understand the structure of the drink, let’s work through several different recipes to see how that structure both repeats and adjusts depending on the particular spirits you want to use. 

(Christmas) Brandy Flip

The easiest and most essential version of the drink, this makes an incredible boozy dessert using just three ingredients. Even better, it works very well with the quite affordable E&J VSOP I recommended infusing last month for the Thanksgiving Sour. Indeed, if you have any of the infused version left over, you can easily turn it into a delicious, spiced-brandy flip — call it a Christmas Flip. This formula also works quite well with dark rum, such as El Dorado 8 year, in place of the brandy. 

• ¾ ounce rich (2:1) demerara syrup

• 1 whole egg

• 1 ½ ounce brandy, such as E&J VSOP or XO

Combine all ingredients in a mixing tin. Seal tin, then dry shake with no ice for 10-15 seconds. Unseal tin, add ice, reseal it, then shake for another 10-15 seconds until fully chilled. Strain into a coupe. Garnish with fresh ground nutmeg. 

Sherry Flip

Like I said: Flips are surprisingly versatile. They work well with a wide array of spirits, and can thus be a good way to whip up a drink with whatever you happen to have on hand. But after dark rum and brandy, the best flip base is sherry. 

Sherry is a complex spirit category that deserves its own newsletter, but its varietals are defined by aging and relative sweetness.  It’s a fortified wine aged through a solera process, in which the alcohol is moved through a series of barrels in a kind of continuous blending and aging system. It’s nutty, fruity, layered, complex, and reasonably affordable, making it a great cocktail ingredient. It pairs especially well with rum and brandy. 

Happily, there are excellent bottles to be found for less than $25. You don’t need to use a $40 bottle of sherry here, but be careful not to use ultra-cheap cooking sherry, like Taylor. Stay away from anything priced at less than $10 a bottle. 

For a pure sherry flip, I like an Oloroso sherry; my go-to brand is Emilio Lustau, which runs about $24 a bottle. Oloroso is technically a dry sherry, but it has a heavier body than much drier varieties like Fino, and a hint of mild sweetness. As a result, however, you’ll need to adjust the ratios somewhat to account for the added sweetness.

If you want to use a drier sherry, like Fino or Manzanilla, try splitting the spirit base with a bit of dark rum or brandy — say 1 ½ ounces of Fino and ½ ounce of higher-proof liquor. 

Finally, remember that sherry, like vermouth, is a wine, and bottles should be kept refrigerated once open. If you’re struggling to find fridge space, try to find half-sized bottles — or put it into the rotation!

This version is a slight variation on the one in the Death & Co. book Cocktail Codex, which among other things makes a strong case for the virtues of sherry flips. 

• ½ ounce rich demerara syrup

• 1 whole egg

• 2 ounces Oloroso sherry, such as Emilio Lustau

Combine all ingredients in a mixing tin. Seal tin, then dry shake with no ice for 10-15 seconds. Unseal tin, add ice, reseal it, then shake for another 10-15 seconds until fully chilled. Strain into a coupe. Garnish with fresh ground nutmeg. 

Cynar Flip

Brandy flips are easy crowd-pleasers. Sherry flips are delicate, flavorful, and relatively light in alcohol content. These are all excellent qualities in a drink. But if you’ve been reading this newsletter, you may have noticed that my personal tastes run toward ingredients that are rich and bitter. One of my absolute favorites is Cynar. 

Cynar is an amaro, or Italian bitter liqueur, that is sometimes described as an “artichoke liqueur.” But while the bottle does carry an image of an artichoke, and there’s a lightly vegetal cast to the flavor profile, that’s not really what it tastes like: Instead, it’s earthy, herbal, root-forward, and bittersweet. It’s not for everyone, but I love it.

At 16.5 percent ABV, it’s also relatively low in alcohol, which makes it an ideal base for dark, bitter nitecaps that aren’t too boozy. And thanks to Portland, Oregon, bartender and cocktail writer Jeffrey Morgenthaler, we know it makes a great flip. 

Though Cynar is known for being quite bitter, it does have an element of sweetness, so you’ll probably notice that we’re reducing the sweetener a bit. Also note that instead of grated nutmeg for the garnish, this recipe calls for a topping of Angostura: After you make the drink, just dot the foam top with bitters. It’s a different way to add spice garnish to a flip. 

• 2 teaspoons rich (2:1) simple syrup

• 1 whole egg

• 2 ounces Cynar

Combine all ingredients in a mixing tin. Seal tin, then dry shake with no ice for 10-15 seconds. Unseal tin, add ice, reseal it, then shake for another 10-15 seconds until fully chilled. Strain into a coupe. Garnish with several dashes of Angostura bitters on the foamy top of the drink. 

Averna Stout Flip

At the beginning of this newsletter, I said we’d be making a hot beer flip. But before we get to that, let’s make a cold one. 

Created by my friend, bartender and drinks-writer Jacob Grier, this one also relies on a rich, dark, bittersweet amaro, Averna (which you may recognize as a key ingredient in a Black Manhattan). 

But the recipe calls for no added sweetener at all. It does, however, use stout beer, which is rich, heavy in body, and mildly sweet. Grier suggests using Young’s Double Chocolate Stout and Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout; I really enjoyed it with Duck Rabbit Milk Stout. You have some flexibility in pairing, but a heavy, cake-y, dessert-like stout will probably work better than something like Guinness. Of all the flips in this newsletter, this one might be my favorite. 

• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

• 1 whole egg

• 1 ounce stout beer

• 2 ounces Averna

Combine all ingredients in a mixing tin. Seal tin, then dry shake with no ice for 10-15 seconds. Unseal tin, add ice, reseal it, then shake for another 10-15 seconds until fully chilled. Strain into a coupe. Garnish with fresh ground nutmeg. 

Hot Ale Flip

Finally, as promised: the steamy beer-booze-sugar-egg cocktail you’ve been waiting for.

The Hot Ale Flip is exactly what it sounds like — a flip with warm beer added to the mix, making it a delicious treat for cold winter nights. It might sound a little strange on paper, but it’s surprisingly accessible, reading closer to hot chocolate than beer or liquor. 

If standard flips are the Christmas cookies of the cocktail world, the Hot Ale Flip is the banana bread. A colonial-era drink beloved by the Founders, it was originally made using a hot iron poker dropped into a mess of beer, eggs, sugar, and liquor. 

Like its colonial ancestor, today’s Hot Ale Flip is a warm, creamy, drinkable, sweet calorie bomb, practically a meal unto itself. Packed with carbs, sugar, and booze, you should probably drink it now — before you make your New Year’s resolutions. 

Preparation is slightly more involved than a conventional flip, but doesn’t require any advance work. Once you know how to do it, the entire process should only take about five minutes from start to finish. 

Here’s my favorite easy-to-make version. 

• 6 ounces oatmeal stout, such as Schlafly’s

• 1 ounce maple syrup

• 1 whole egg

• 1 ½ ounces brandy

Pour six ounces of beer into a saucepan, then heat on the stove until it starts to bubble. Do not let it boil. 

While beer is heating, whisk together syrup, egg, and brandy in a heat-safe mixing bowl.  

After beer is fully heated, slowly pour the hot beer into the spirit-sugar-egg mixture, stirring continually as you pour in order to integrate the hot beer without cooking the egg. 

Finally, rapidly pour the mixture back and forth between your mixing bowl and your saucepan. You’ll need to do this four or five times. The goal is to aerate the drink and froth the mixture. Some splashing is to be expected. You should probably do this over a sink. 

As with so many cocktails, your results will depend significantly on both the ratios you use and the ingredient pairings you choose. But it’s incredibly flexible. 

Some recipes, for example, call for slightly more ale, but I prefer a six-ounce pour for two reasons. First, it makes for a creamier, eggier drink. Second, it makes it easy to split a 12-ounce bottle of beer.

In general, I find the drink is best with rich and flavorful stouts, but it works with more traditional English brown ales as well. Dark rum is a traditional spirit base, but brandy and whiskey can be good too. The sweetener is often a brown sugar syrup, but I generally prefer maple syrup; this is a drink that benefits from heavier, richer ingredients. You can also go further afield by splitting the sweet portion with a sweet, flavored liqueur, like Giffard Banane du Brésil or St. Germain. 

And don’t be afraid to try variations! This is definitely a cocktail form factor you should experiment with, especially since there are so many excellent craft beer breweries spread throughout the country. Build your own version around a good local brew and a favorite bottle of brandy, rum, or whiskey. 

I’ll leave you with a slightly more complex variation on the drink that I made as part of my wife’s request for a version that resembles a ginger or molasses cookie, or perhaps pumpkin pie. The result tastes a little like a mashup of all of those things. 

• 6 ounces Imperial Pumpkin Ale

• ¼ ounce Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur 

• ¾ ounce maple syrup

• 1 whole egg

• 1 ½ ounces El Dorado 8 year

Follow the same instructions as above to heat the beer, whip the other ingredients, then mix the hot beer and spirit-egg-sugar mix together.  

May your holiday drinks be merry and delicious.

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Cocktail Library: Cocktails on Tap: The Art of Mixing Spirits and Beer, by Jacob Grier: The essential guide to a delicious and underappreciated category of cocktails, and the source for the Averna Stout Flip. Grier’s now out-of-print book Cocktail Collective was the first cocktail book I ever acquired. You can subscribe to Grier’s Substack here.