Yeah, I know it is a beer and a whiskey.
Which beer?
Which whiskey?
Guinness and Jamison’s is how my Daddy did it.
Sometimes Jamie '08
What about Bruichladdich X4 Quadrupled Whiskey (184 Proof) and Hair Of The Dog Dave?
Home brew and moonshine?
Beer - whatever’s on tap. Whiskey - it’s a shame to waste good whiskey when you won’t really taste its subtleties, but it’s also a shame to drink bad whiskey, period. I’d use Tullamore Dew, my go-to mixer and casual drink.
When I drank them it was fairly cheap whiskey (lower shelf) in a glass of lower end tap beer.
I’m the same. Plain old Budweiser and a shot of Johnnie Walker Red Label.
Does the shot of whiskey have to be dropped into the beer for it to be a boilermaker, or can it be on the side?
I don’t want to trigger that go-round, but dropping shot plus glass into beer is called a depth charge.
Cecil had a column on this years ago which I can’t locate at the moment. I’ll be back when found.
Poured in - Boilermaker.
Dropped in - Depth Charge.
On the side - Chaser.
Not on the side.
I never knew the shot glass drop in had a different name.
But the whiskey had to be in the beer to be a boilermaker.
I’m ba-ack:
So maybe the Depth Charge thing is not correct then.
I’ve always known it to properly be a whiskey with a beer chaser. Type of whiskey or beer doesn’t matter, but usually is bottom shelf stuff. I am familiar with the “drop the whiskey in” variation, too, which very well may be more popular in the last few decades, but to me any of those “drop the shot in” drinks are for college frat kids.
The whiskey in the beer is quite old, my Grandpa drank those for decades and he passed in 1978.
The shot glass drop in might have been newer, I can’t be sure I saw that until the mid to late 80s.
But a beer chaser is just a beer chaser. Not a boilermaker.
If we use wiki, there is no one answer to this.
Sot!! 
Thanks for the Wiki item, a nice read with my Rice Krispies.
So in the old days when Dad’s would bring home the Christmas gifts of Canadian Club, Seagram’s VO or the like and drank crap like Miller, adding the mediocre at best Xmas whiskey to Miller in a tall glass was better than drinking either by itself.
In a bar, the tap beer might well be something like Schlitz or Piels and again, any cheap whiskey added to this still made for a fairly cheap strong drink to start the night.
I guess what I am saying is don’t waste good stuff on a boiler maker. Use your crappiest whiskey and your low end beer. If I was to have one today, I would be a shot of Canadian Club* in a glass of Yuengling Lager.
* Came from my Dad’s liquor cabinet. It is probably 40 years old.
I almost want to change my moniker to A. Sean O’Farrell.
Except that it is…at least one of the definitions. If you follow the Wikipedia links:
Or here, entitled "The History of the Boilermaker: Otherwise Known as a Shot and a Beer:
And Cecils column, too.
Are ye a Yinzer?