Batched Cocktails
(every known method)

To understand the varying methods, we must start with the categorization of cocktails. As most know, this can be broken into two main groups. Shaken, and stirred. What exactly defines the difference? Quite simply, the addition of ingredients which do not incorporate as easily. 

 

Ingredients like juice, dairy, or egg white, alongside plenty of others will require shaking to combine well. To not shake ingredients like these is one of the heaviest indicators that a cocktail is being made wrong, or by someome with minimal cocktail knowledge. There are of course acceptions, but in most cases It will lead to seperation.

 

Once you understand this, the second most important aspect is dilusion. All cocktails need dilusion. In fact, quite often, plain spirits taste far better with slight dilusion. This is why people will put a splash of water in their whisky when drinking neat. 

 

Its tougher to control dilusion when shaking cocktails, but its safe to assume that a shaken cocktail will have over 30% dilusion, often up to 50%. And yes, this means, an additional 50% of the original fluid ounces. If the cocktail is 4 Oz, diluded by 50%, it will come out being 6 Oz in the glass. 

 

Stirred cocktails can have lower dilusion, around 25%, but can still get very high depending on the legnth of stirring. (Side note: This is why the time shaken/stirred that is written in the recipe is very important to follow!) 

 

Knowing this is what allows batched, kegged, or any ready-made cocktails to thrive. With this logic, you can employ ready-made techniques to practically any cocktail, by simply scaling up the recipe to fit your vessel. 

 

So let me take you through different ingredients and discuss the newest techniques for pre-batching.

 

 

 

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Stirred cocktails

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Cocktails that consist purely of bitters, syrups, spirits, liquiers, amaros and aperatifs, need very little modifications to be prebatched. In most cases, the shortest shelf life of an individual igredient used will determine the shelf life of the batched cocktail... which means yes, you can batch an old fashioned and it will taste as if made fresh theoretically for years. The spirit may loose some of its flavor notes, however it will still make a tasty drink which is completely safe to consume. This will be slightly shorter with ingredients like liquiers, which tend to have a shelf life of 1-2 years. This will be made even shorter with the use of ingredients such as fortified wines like vermouth, which tend to last for only about 2-3 weeks when chilled. 

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Citrus/Juices

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The main problem with citrus is oxidation. Luckily, recent innovations have helped to alleviate this issue. Super juice, a technique created by Bar Owner Nickle Morris in 2020, makes a solution of zest and acids resposible for citrus flavors. By avoiding acetic acid, we can prevent oxidation, the main factor resposible for citrus fruits going bad. While slightly extending the shelf life of the batched cocktail, the most important reason for using super juice in prebatched cocktails is to bulster the flavors. Squeezing lemons or limes will usualy empart some cistrus zest flavor, something which is vert desirable. To mimic this in a cocktail which is not being made fresh, super juice will gaunratee this additional flavor boost.. as opposed to using a mechanic citrus juicer, which emparts no zest. Additionally, you will be able to make an entire batch of cocktails using 1-2 lemons or limes, as opposed to the insane number that would be required otherwise.

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Egg white/Foam

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Ive searched far and wide for the best options here. As far as pre-batched egg white cocktails are concerned, Kevin Kos seems to have the best option, being methelcelulos super syrup. There is, as of now, no way to get a nice foam out of a kegged cocktail, immediately upon pouring from the tap. 

 

Another good option is to simply batch all of the ingredients other than the foaming agent, and use dave arnolds method for cocktail bubbles, or an isi cream whipper for a foam. To make Kevin Kos's super syrup, check out this link. 

 

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Herbs

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Herbs are possibly the hardest ingredient to prebatch. This is because leaving fresh herbs in a liquid for too long is a horrible idea! For this, I would advise Jean-Felix's method of blanching and washing the herb into the spirit, alongside the sugar. This creates a sort of liqueur, which can then be mixed with citrus upon serving. While this method doesn't batch the entire cocktail and still requires shaking to incorporate the citrus, its the most surefire way to get a clean herbal flavor from a cocktail which is mostly ready to go. 

 

Soda

 

Quite simply, soda will not retain its carbonation when batched. As such, the best hack for this, is very straight forward.. batch the non soda ingredients, and top with soda when serving!

 

Additionally, you can of course carbonate your own beverages in a keg! Kegging cocktails is a subject in and of itself, which we will cover extensively coming up. 

 

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Cream

 

As of right now there is no way to batch a cream based cocktails without seperation.. so please reach out if you have a method! We will credit you. 

 

There are however two method ive found is to be relatively successful.... First, you can use non dairy based cream. Cream of coconut (which is basically coconut milk syrup) does a decent job holding up, espcially with the high sugar content. With a quick shake to reincorperate ingredients, cocktails with cream of coconut will hold up through the night. Since sugar acts as a stabilizer, these batches last in the fridge for a few weeks with no issues. 

 

The other method is to batch the non cream based ingredients, and incorperate the cream when serving. Cream, while it is best to shake in, can be incorperated by stirring. This works best with hot cocktails, but may require a shake depending on the ingredients. This being said, it will still save a bit of time to have a ready made creme de cacao / creme de menthe mixture, so all that is required is adding cream and shaking. It may not save much time, but it will make a difference!