Fernet, built
Fernet and Ginger
Barline 1,4,RLw
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 1 oz Fernet
- 4 oz Ginger beer
Build in the glass over ice, then lift once with a barspoon.
Rocks, iced, lime wheel.
Taste
One ounce of Fernet, four ounces of ginger beer, over ice. The ginger beer is the drink; the Fernet is mint and bitter through the spice. Lime squeezed in and dropped. A highball. It sits.
History
Fernet and ginger beer is a bartender's highball, Fernet-Branca lengthened with ginger, a squeeze of lime. It does not appear under a fixed name in the pre-1970 manuals; it belongs to the Fernet-Branca cult that took hold in San Francisco bars in the 2000s and then everywhere else. Brett Adams and Jacob Grier print it in Raising the Bar (2022) as an ounce of Fernet and four of ginger beer, lime wedge in. The pour here is theirs, in a rocks glass with ice.
Same shape, other bottles
The Highball family, with the bottle that changed.
- Elderflower Collinselderflower liqueur and soda water for Fernet and ginger beer
- Campari & Tonictonic water for ginger beer
- Gin & Tonictonic water for ginger beer
- Scotch and Sodasoda water for ginger beer
- Sherry & Tonictonic water for ginger beer
- Vermouth & Tonictonic water for ginger beer
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.