Garrison Brothers recently announced the winner of the 2022 Bourbon Brawl Bartender of the Year, with New York-based Albert Pero III (Albie) taking home the honors. He is the founder and creator of Spirit for Spirits, a bartending-battle YouTube show that highlights people in the spirits industry both behind the bar and behind the bottle.
Albie’s winning cocktail at The Bourbon Brawl Finale in Austin on June 30th was the “BD4.”
“It brings me such pride and joy to see our nation’s finest bartenders come together to make magic with our Garrison Brothers bourbon,” said Dan Garrison, founder of the distillery in a prepared statement. “There’s nothing better than watching talented artists display their mastery. The finalists and their cocktails this year were so incredibly creative. Albert’s winning BD4 is true excellence.”
Albert Pero III’s winning cocktail, “BD4”, is a twist on a Manhattan inspired by Albert’s childhood trips to Yankee stadium. He explained that he mixes Garrison Brothers Small Batch Bourbon with vermouth, Earl Grey tea syrup, chocolate and cherry bark vanilla bitters and garnishes with ground cinnamon.
Bourbon Brawl partner Cocktail Courier will offer this winning cocktail as the 2022 Garrison Brothers Bourbon Brawl Cocktail Kit, available for order and shipping nationwide from now until August 7th.
“This cocktail is a Manhattan twist with a nod to my dad and I taking trips to Yankee Stadium,” Pero III said. “We’d eat chocolate and vanilla twist ice cream out of little baseball helmets together and this is a story of those flavors. The three trains that will take you from Manhattan to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx are the B,D, and 4!”
A statement from Garrison Brothers notes that annually, the Bourbon Brawl awards a person who displays the best in total breadth and aptitude as a professional bartender, encompasses notable knowledge of Garrison Brothers Distillery, has the ability to understand and create balanced cocktails, demonstrates technical skill, maintains cleanliness and bar-side manner, and has an overall impressive presentation style mixed with genuine hospitality.
This year’s seven judges were: Garrison Brothers founder Dan Garrison; Garrison Brothers Master Distiller Donnis Todd; 2021 Bourbon Brawl Winner Josh Davey (The Blind Pig); Elisabeth Forsythe (Republic National Distributing Company); Lisa Marie Selman (Breakthru Beverage); Vincent Lavayen (Epicurean Hotel); Michael Pernicano (Union Square Café); and Charles Antony Abou-Ganim (The Modern Mixologist).
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The five finalists that competed in the Bourbon Brawl finale in Austin this past June were Albert Pero III (New York), Graham Comstock (Tampa), Rachel Keeney (Orange County), Ryan Smith (Houston), and Zachary McMahon (Chicago).
The three-round finale first featured batched cocktails from each bartender’s online submission using Garrison Brothers Small Batch Bourbon. The second round presented a new cocktail using Garrison Brothers HoneyDew Bourbon. The third round saw the top two scorers facing off to create a final cocktail from a table of mystery ingredients for the judges to critique with the top scoring bartender named the Garrison Brothers Bourbon Brawl Bartender of the Year.
For more information on Garrison Brothers or to buy the award-winning cocktail kit, check out www.garrisonbros.com.
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