Forget Coke — This Refreshing Beer Pairs Perfectly With Bourbon

Coke and bourbon might be a classic combination, but the cloying sweetness they tend to create might not be for everyone. For something a little less saccharine and a ton more balanced, you'll want to go with a more natural pairing for bourbon: beer. Before you start getting ideas involving IPAs and stouts, we're not talking about the alcoholic sort of beer — although it goes well with bourbon, too. The kind of beer that truly takes bourbon to the next level is ginger beer.

The reason it works falls on the principle of creating balance through contrast. While bourbon is known for often having a smooth flavor profile, ginger beer tends to be punchy and zesty. It brightens up the deep caramel, vanilla, and woody notes you'll find in many bourbons, while its fizziness helps cut the bite of the alcohol. At the same time, the sweetness in bourbon mellows the sharpness you often get with ginger beer. Bridging everything together are the warm, spicy notes present in both, resulting in an invigorating, yet somehow simultaneously comforting blend of flavors.

It's because of this balance that you really shouldn't be using ginger beer and ginger ale interchangeably for this cocktail. The latter tends to be milder and a lot sweeter than ginger beer, so much so that you can technically make it at home with just some ginger-flavored syrup and carbonated water. Making ginger beer at home is a lot more complicated, but the robust flavors you get from brewing it really uplift bourbon cocktails.

The best place to start with the ginger beer and bourbon pairing is through a straight mix of the two. While the proportions for each depend on what brand of bourbon you've got on hand, you typically want to have more ginger beer than booze. A 2:3 ratio of bourbon and ginger beer is a safe place to start, since you can always add more of the latter until everything's to your liking. Given that ginger beer is best served cold, you'll want to keep in mind that the flavor of your cocktail will likely be diluted by the ice in your glass.

If you're ready to explore what else can be made from the pairing, a good next step is to try a Kentucky Mule. It's basically a Southern twist on the Moscow Mule, swapping out the vodka for bourbon and keeping the lime juice. For something a little more complex, you can try one of Kansas City's favorite cocktails, the Horsefeather, which is essentially a Kentucky Mule with a splash of Angostura bitters. If you want to add more fruit to the flavor profile, fall flavors like apple and pomegranate work well with the spicier notes in the bourbon-and-ginger base.

As with any cocktail, any resulting drink will only be as good as its worst ingredient, and there's generally less cocktail-related information out there when it comes to ginger beer. If you want to give this mix a try, it's hard to go wrong with Fever Tree, which ranks highest among commercial ginger beers, based on reviews.