How to Make Fireball Whiskey

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FIREBALL WHISKEY

Fireball Whiskey is warm, spicy, and sweet. It's best consumed at a bar with friends, during tailgate parties in the fall, or at breakfast in the dead of winter. Yes, Fireball is a very versatile drink, suitable for many occasions. While it isn't the most classy beverage, that doesn't mean it isn't good. What's not to like about cinnamon, sugar, and spice?

Cinnamon has a long history with whiskey. We have absolutely no proof of this, but we imagine that the ancient Egyptians and maybe even the Romans made their own spiced whiskey when cinnamon was first imported to that geographical area a few thousand years ago. Again, we just made that up. But it's possible. They had college fraternities, right?

Here's one thing we have not made up: we were intrigued by Fireball, tried it, kinda liked it, and then decided to make our own. We weren't trying to replicate it flavor for flavor. Truth is that we feel like it could be better. What we like about Fireball is the cinnamon. What we don't like is that it's too sweet and it isn't hot enough. It actually isn't hot at all. So, when we set out to make our own natural version we made sure to spice it up. In fact, in addition to a lot of cinnamon, we've included 4 types of peppers and peppercorn.

Fireball Whiskey Recipe

Ingredients:

  • Cinnamon
  • Crushed Red Pepper
  • Thai Peppers
  • Pink Peppercorn
  • Black Peppercorn
  • Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
  • 1 Bottle of vodka or Old Smoky Moonshine

Procedure:

  • Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients in a large pot. Let it sit for 12-24 hours then strain out all of the spices.

How much of each ingredient and what proportions should you use? Great question! The quick answer is this: use mostly cinnamon and be sparing with the spices. The long answer is that we tooled around with this recipe for a long time to get it right. In fact we made more than a dozen batches before we thought we had nailed it. Once we got to that point, we thought it was too good to just give away. So, we packaged it up and it's available to you in the form of our totally bad ass, foolproof, super easy to make, ultra convenient, and totally badass (did we mention that already?), FireBomb Whiskey Spice Kit. Put our pride to the test, we dare you. Order some today, make up a batch, and let us know what you think!

Portrait of Kyle Brown

Kyle Brown is the owner of Clawhammer Supply, a small scale distillation and brewing equipment company which he founded in 2009. His passion is teaching people about the many uses of distillation equipment as well as how to make beer at home. When he isn't brewing beer or writing about it, you can find him at his local gym or on the running trail.

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13 Comments

  • A
    Comment Author: August

    I made my fireball Whiskey very easy! Get a box or bag of Red-hot Cinnamon candy, 1 to 2 cups of distilled water ( depends on how much you are going to cook up! ) put the water in the pot add the red hots and let simmer about Fifteen minutes on a low flame. Make sure you keep stirring so you don’t burn it! Let cool to room temperature,now the rest is up to you! Get your moonshine,i used 195 proof everclear.I proofed mine down to 110 proof. mix everything up an put in a mason jars, i used the bottle the everclear came in! Add 3 cinnamon sticks, I used the 110 proof everclear filled the bottle half or three quarters full! Again depending how strong you want it.then add the red-hot mix Thats it! Shake up you can drink it right away,But it gets better the longer it sits. When your ready to drink it you might need to strain it into another bottle. I leave mine in the same bottle. Tip: anytime you proof your product always use Distilled water,and when tapping off the bottle. CARING IS SHARING! Enjoy! You can’t screw it up!

  • D
    Comment Author: Dewayne

    Now your cooking with crisco!!!!

  • C
    Comment Author: Carmen

    I didn’t have the full 7 cups of alcohol, so I did 5 cups with only half the spice kit. I added an extra cinnamon stick and used the full amount of Apple juice. It turned out perfect!!! The spicy hot did not detract from the flavor or smoothness at all.

  • S
    Comment Author: Saurabh

    Hi. Same comment as earlier. If its already too spicy for your liking, how do yo sweeten it up?

    The link didn’t help. Sorry.

  • J
    Comment Author: JOe

    Thought it was too spicy hot. More cinnamon flavor perhaps.