What's the deal with eggnog? This Louisville bar owner swears he can make you love it.
Dana McMahan, Special to the Courier Journal
December, 2023
"Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?"
So says Chevy Chase’s Clark W. Griswold to Cousin Eddie in that seminal moment of the holiday classic "National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation."
Is that why egg nog gets a bad rap? Maybe? All I know is that besides being the butt of a million jokes, anything served in a moose cup (amazing as it may be, and I mean that; I have one) can’t be a serious drink.
Or can it?
Turns out, maybe!
When I asked around, one name immediately came up. Jason Brauner makes the best eggnog in town, bourbon writer Maggie Kimberl said (“legenDAIRY” in fact - insert groan here). So I did what any enterprising reporter would do. I called up Brauner, who founded Bourbons Bistro, 2255 Frankfort Ave., and asked him to spill his secrets.
The bad news: it’s a closely guarded secret family recipe shared with him by a friend, and I couldn’t get Brauner to divulge it. The good news: you can just go to Bourbons Bistro and order one for yourself! And this version is one he says has swayed a lot of people who think they don’t like eggnog (or whiskey!).
“There's really two camps about eggnog,” he says. “They either love it or hate it and there isn’t really any in between.”
Nostalgia may be a factor for those who love it, Brauner says. Then again, bad memories around eggnog may be why others think they don’t.
"I run into a lot of people who say, 'eww, I hate eggnog,'" he says, but that’s "because it came out of those cartons, you know, that my grandmother would get at the grocery store and they would end up maybe putting some terrible whiskey in it."
I couldn’t hear that and not try his version, so I headed to Bourbons the other night and, with a healthy dose of skepticism, I tried it.
And let’s just say he’s not kidding. It’s creamy, decadent, sweet but not cloying — basically, it’s like bourbon and Christmas had a baby. So it’s easy to see why they even sell it by the bottle (one person ordered 18 of them, the host mentioned!).
Honestly, I can’t imagine why any of us would want any other eggnog, but if you want to make your own, there is no shortage of recipes to be found. And the thing Brauner wants you to know is to keep it very simple.
“A lot of people get carried away with nutmeg and cloves and baking spices and what have you,” he says. He sticks with vanilla as the only add-on to milk, sugar, egg whites, and whiskey.
“And use quality ingredients always,” he added.
If it were me, I’d start with JD Country Milk and great local eggs. Now the big question: which whiskey?
The original recipe that Brauner adapted his from called for pure grain alcohol at 190 proof. Whew! He doesn’t go that high but does specify using at least 100 proof so that it can stand up against the sweet nature of the drink. They told me at the bar at Bourbons that it’s made with their barrel pick of Knob Creek, which clocks in at 120 proof.
In the old days before everything was impossible to buy, Brauner liked — get this — George T. Stagg. Imagine!
“That was the highest-proof bourbon you could get,” he says. “And I’m a purist.” And even 15 years ago (you know, before everything seemed to be on allocation), this raised eyebrows.
“A friend of mine went to a liquor store and asked if they had George T. Stagg,” Brauner recounts. “And the guy asked him if it was a special occasion. He said, ‘I'm making eggnog,’ and the guy behind the counter looked at him like he was an idiot, basically, called him an idiot," he says with a laugh, “and my friend said, 'well, you've never tasted the eggnog.'"
So if you’re wondering whether eggnog can be considered a serious cocktail, as far as Brauner — who besides owning Bourbons Bistro also launched his own bourbon brand, Buzzard's Roost — is concerned, it absolutely is.
“Even though I'm not a huge cocktail person, I'll have a cocktail now and then,” he says. “I would consider it a craft cocktail.”
Eggnog is on the menu at Bourbons Bistro, 2255 Frankfort Ave. through the holidays. And if you don’t think you like it, “Give it a try,” Brauner says. “I'm swaying many, many people that have absolutely hated eggnog. And they call me every year and say, 'I need it.'"
Looks like I’ll be among them.