A Beer Expert’s Guide To Making Beer Cocktails

Once you discover beer cocktails, you’ll never go back. Beer’s myriad of flavors, mouthfeel, and aromas can add heft but also a delicate nature to all manner of drinks. That’s because beer can taste like almost every flavor and aroma imaginable from water crackers to tropical to chocolate. Beer is more than just a keg at a tailgate or for a plate of nachos, beer can enhance almost any situation, including being in a high end cocktail bar.

Beer writer Melissa Cole knows a thing or two about beer cocktails. After all, she wrote about them in her 2017 book The Little Book of Craft Beer and provides great examples of how beer can be manipulated to add a spin to your favorite cocktails.

“It’s all about small details when it comes to making great cocktails, it’s about textures, carbonation (or lack thereof),” says Cole. “Is it a tall drink, a short drink, is it for sipping or refreshment?” Beer can be used in all of these situations.

Where To Begin With Beer Cocktails?

Working with beer in a cocktail setting is just like putting together any recipe be it cocktail or food. You want to know what you are working with. What’s the beer you have? What’s its alcohol strength? What are its primary aromas and flavors? Beer can be bitter (think IPAs or higher alcohol beers like barleywine), beer can be sweet (wheat beers) or beer can be sour (lambics or berliner weisses). You want to lean into what the beer can provide. With bitterness, remember that many liqueurs are also bitter so it doesn’t have to be a battle, it can work for you or you can use simple syrup to temper the bitterness. Speaking of bitterness, Cole suggests using beers that utilize American hops, which have really nice citrus flavors and aromas and would be helpful in many cocktails

“Is that a note you are looking for in your drink?” says Cole. “If so, then go for it!”

Another tip from Cole is using carbonation in the beer to your advantage. Higher carbonation beers like Belgian saisons (with lovely white pepper notes) are great for adding extra body, flavor and aroma to drinks in space of soda water.

And don’t forget, you can use alcohol-free beers too to make mocktails, which are currently a huge segment of any well-rounded cocktail program.

“I’ve used non-alcoholic stout to make a float before, it’s silly and fun but still tasty,” says Cole.

A Couple Of Recipe Ideas From Cole’s Book The Little Book Of Craft Beer

A Quick Session

Based on the classic Greyhound cocktail, this is a simple and refreshing drink. It’s great to make in large quantities for parties so Cole has put this into parts so you can batch it.

2 parts vodka, straight from the freezer

3 parts well-chilled grapefruit juice

2 parts well-chilled session IPA or American pale ale. Look to local breweries for who makes this style really well.

Mix the vodka and grapefruit juice, pour into a highball glass and top up carefully with the beer. You can also put a salt rim on the glass for a take on the salty dog.

A Rube Icon

A punch inspired drink, this drink is very simple to make and uses a tropical beer style like a gose or berliner weisse along with a lychee and lime juice.

2 oz. lychee liqueur

2 teaspoons lime juice

5 oz. tropical fruited beer style like a gose or berliner weisse, check your local brewery for best options

Shake the liqueur and lime juice together over ice and strain into a martini glass. Top up with beer, stir gentle and serve.

Cheers to summer beer cocktails and remember to drink responsibly and to share drinks with people you truly care about.