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Half the lemon and slightly heavier on the ginger made it more to my liking, though I generally reduce any lemon in a recipe

Lots of different ways to get to this destination (or nearby): also fun to make w/ ginger juice for an extra kick, or with just honey (who has time for ginger syrup - honestly), with ginger preserves and half the honey for the same idea. You can also mule this thing up by lengthening w/ ginger beer for a long, spicy, summer refresher.

A great way to enjoy a smoky scotch whisky, and to intoduce friends to the potential. I used ginger syrup instead of honey. I don't get distinct flavors of lemon and ginger, instead I get some brightness and lightness from the citrus, and some spicy bite from the ginger - very nice to lighten and enliven the smoky weight (even though diluted with blended scotch) of the Islay scotch (that's what I use).

I've had and enjoyed Penicillin to this recipe for years - BUT all this time never with the separate peated whisky (just increased amount of the 'base' whisky). I have kept some well aged peated single malts but never wanted to use them as cocktail ingredients.

I decided it was about time my bar included a separate decent but mixable peated whisky for such events (chose Smokehead on recommendation from a Scotch friend) & it is truly transformative. The peat turns this from 4-4.5 to a 5/5. Wow!

An undeniably tasty drink. The necessity for an ingredient not carried in most bars and one that takes some effort to make yourself keeps it from being a staple. Fortunately I have a hack that doesn’t diminish its greatness. In a tin muddle two thin slices of ginger and .75 oz honey syrup (2:1 honey to water). Proceed with making the rest of the drink.

Another of the classics where you find your preferred combination and expression, and it sings.
The homemade honey ginger syrup WAS worth the effort, though a little Internet based research after the fact indicated that peeling ginger is a tedious steep that can be dispensed with, conferring neither sanitary nor flavour benefits.
Great stuff!

Approximately how long does the honey ginger syrup keep?

While I really like this cocktail I don't go through the honey-ginger syrup fast enough before it goes bad. I've experimented using the original recipe, using liquid ginger juice to make the syrup instead of roots, the one above with ginger liqueur and honey syrup, and using ginger liqueur and barenjager (replaces the honey syrup). Sadly the one I like best is the original, which requires scrubbing, peeling and slicing ginger root.