contemporary · built
Horse's Neck recipe
Cognac and ginger ale with bitters and a long lemon peel.
A Horse's Neck is 40 ml (37.6 g) Cognac, 120 ml (124.8 g) Ginger Ale and 1 ml (1 g) Angostura Bitters, built and served in a highball glass. It pours to about 161 ml before ice, at roughly 10.2% ABV. Weighing the ingredients instead of measuring them is what keeps the balance identical from one round to the next.
- Glasshighball glass
- Methodbuilt
- Pour volume161 ml
- Strength (est.)10.2% ABV
- Time2 min
Horse's Neck ingredients — in millilitres and grams
Grams are what the PourPilot coaster actually targets. They are not the same as the millilitres: a spirit is lighter than water, a syrup is heavier, so 30 ml of one is never 30 g. The right-hand column is the density we use, in grams per millilitre.
| Ingredient | Volume | Weight | g/ml | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cognac | 40 ml | 37.6 g | 0.94 | Weighed by the coaster |
| Ginger Ale | 120 ml | 124.8 g | 1.04 | Top with ginger ale |
| Angostura Bitters | 1 ml | — | 0.98 | Few dashes (optional) |
How to make a Horse's Neck
- Set your highball glass on the scale (or on the PourPilot coaster) and zero it. Every measurement below is given in millilitres and in grams, so you can use either.
- Fill the highball glass with fresh ice.
- Build Cognac straight into the glass, weighing each pour.
- Top with Ginger Ale and stir once, gently, from the bottom up.
- Finish with few dashes (optional) of Angostura Bitters.
Horse's Neck: the questions people actually ask
How strong is a Horse's Neck?
Roughly 10.2% ABV as poured, before the ice dilutes it — typically another 15–25% water by the time you finish stirring or shaking. Sessionable. Comparable to a glass of wine by volume.
What glass should a Horse's Neck be served in?
A highball glass. Fill it with fresh ice, not the ice you mixed with.
Can I make a Horse's Neck without a jigger?
Yes — that is what the gram column is for. Put the glass or tin on a kitchen scale, zero it, and pour to the weight. It is more accurate than a jigger because nothing is left clinging to the inside of the measure. The PourPilot coaster does the same thing without you having to watch a display: it lights up as you approach the target and tells you when to stop.
Why are some ingredients not weighed?
Dashes of bitters and rinses are too small to weigh reliably — a dash is roughly 0.8 ml, well inside the noise of any bar scale. Count them instead. Everything else in this Horse's Neck is weighed.
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