Celebrate National Beer Day on April 7th with five delicious beer cocktails that will win over both friends and foes of hops! Here are a few of our favorite tips, to ensure your best brewtail experience.
Chill The Beer
Make sure your beer is cold before using it in a cocktail. While other drinks can be cooled with ice, in a brewtail, it’s just going to water down the drink. The colder, the better before you mix.
Do Not Shake the Beer
Please don’t shake your beer. This should be common sense, but if you shake a beer cocktail, you’ll lose the bubbles. This is part of the experience of a beer cocktail, so remember to stir gently.
Pairing Makes Perfect
Pair before you pour. Some beers will work better with certain ingredients. Just like pairing food with wine or a cocktail, certain flavors will pair better with different styles of beer. Lagers and lighter beers work well with citrus and sweet/sour flavors-think Dos Equis, Hefeweizen, or Modelo Especial. Hoppy beers pair well with bitter ingredients, herbs and spice, while dark beers and stouts can hold up to chocolate, caramel, and creamy dessert-style cocktails like an adult milkshake.
Serve It With Style
The right (or wrong) glass can make a break a cocktail. For example, a wide-mouthed glass like a martini or coupe is going to allow bubbles to escape more quickly, vs. a tall, thin glass. Creamy drinks deserve a mug or tall, narrow pint glass, and a rocks glass with ice will work for most citrus based cocktails.
Spiked Black and Tan
By David Weissman
- 8 oz Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout
- 5 oz of Soltado Tequila
- 1 pasteurized egg white
- .5 oz Fees Brothers Caramel Syrup
Add egg white to shaker, shake for 1 minute (to get the egg white frothy). Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Pour into pint glass.
The Traveling Agave Farmer
By Cassandra Rosen
- 5 oz Soltado Spicy Añejo Tequila
- .5 oz orange liqueur
- .5 oz fresh sour orange juice
- .25 simple syrup
- Juice of half a lime
- Traveler IPA Shandy beer
- Ice
- Salt and orange zest, for rimming
Rim glass, fill with ice, and set aside. Add all ingredients to a shaker, except for shandy. Shake with ice, strain. Top with Traveler IPA Shandy, stir. Serve.
Soltado Spicy Beer-Arita
By Cassandra Rosen
- Makes 6-8
- 8 oz Soltado Spicy Añejo Tequila
- 2-12 ounce bottles light lager beer
- 1-12 ounce can frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
- Lime wedges
- Sea salt
- Hot chile powder
In a large pitcher, combine the beer, tequila and limeade. Rub a lime wedge around the rim of each of glass and dip one half in salt, and one half in the chile powder. Fill glasses with ice. Pour the margaritas into glasses, and garnish with a lime wedge.
Soltado Indian Summer
By Cassandra Rosen
- 5 oz Soltado Spicy Añejo Tequila
- .75 oz Orange Liqueur
- .75 oz Simple Syrup
- 1 oz Pink Grapefruit juice
- One lemon wedge, squeezed
- Pale Indian Ale
Shake and strain all ingredients except beer into a tall glass on the rocks. Top with beer, stir. Garnish with grapefruit or lemon peel.
Kicked Up Mocha Milkshake
By Cassandra Rosen
- 1 oz Soltado Spicy Añejo Tequila
- Chocolate and coffee ice cream
- 2 ounces Guinness stout
- Dash of chocolate bitters
Directions:
Pour tequila and Guinness into glass, add ice cream, top with chocolate bitters.
For more National Beer Day and cocktail ideas, click here!