If you’re looking to mix things up with your standard fare cocktails, craft beer can add that extra kick to bring your home cocktail game to a new level.
Here are four beer cocktails I’d recommend trying out at home, all using some great B.C. craft brews:
Honey Lime Beergarita
Ingredients
- 1 cup of organic lime juice
- 5 cups of water
- 2/3 cups of sugar
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 2 oz tequila
- 1 bottle or can of Main Street Pilsner
Method
Combine lime juice, water and sugar, honey and tequila in a pitcher and stir until fully mixed together. Add the beer, stir a bit more and serve immediately over ice.
For frozen margaritas, combine lime mix, beer and tequila in a blender, fill blender with ice and blend.
Main Street Pilsner adds a nice touch to this margarita as the crisp pilsner taste adds to the lime and honey. Red Racer or Four Winds pilsners would also work well.
Whisky Radler
Recipe by Justin Taylor, Bar Manager at Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar
This cocktail is a thirst quenching and refreshing libation, filled with late summer flavours balanced with the bitterness of hops and grapefruit.
Ingredients
- 1.5 oz Mcloughlin and Steele Okanagan Whisky
- 0.5 oz Giffard Apricot Liqueur
- 1.0 oz Fresg Squeezed Grapefruit Juice
- 3 dashes Bitteres Sling Hopped Grapefruit Bitters
- 0.5 oz Honey Water (1:1 hot water mixed with honey)
- 2 oz Old Yale “Moondance” Mango Wheat Beer
Method
Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake for 10 seconds. Strain over crushed ice in a double old fashioned glass.
Top up with Old Yale Mango Wheat Beer.
Vanilla Dive Bomb Porter Float
Sometimes simple makes the best recipes. Beer and ice cream can’t go wrong and the combination of porter and Tahitian vanilla is unbelievable.
Ingredients
- 1 scoop of Tahitian Vanilla ice cream from Earnest Ice Cream
- 650ml bottle of Powell Street Dive Bomb Porter
Method
Add one scoop of ice cream into a mug or stein, slowly pour Dive Bomb Porter into the stein, watch for foam over.
For another creative mix try Earnest Ice Cream’s salted caramel ice cream with Innis & Gunn’s toasted oak IPA.
Chili Lemon Shandy
This cocktail is a creative take on the age old shandy cocktail. The chilis add an extra kick which is balanced out by the addition of the honey. Using a pure rye based vodka like Wyborowa makes sure the cocktail stays crisp and clean.
Ingredients
- 2 oz of Wyborowa vodka
- 2 oz of fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 oz of honey
- 1 dried chili pepper
- 1 bottle of Granville Island Hey Day Hefeweisen
- Lemon slices
Method
Add the vodka, lemon juice, chili pepper and honey to a cocktail shaker. Stir the ingredients together until honey is dissolved. Add ice and shake.
Strain liquid into a tall cocktail glass and top up with Hefeweisen. Garnish with lemon slices or additional chile peppers for an extra kick.
Alternative beers to switch things up could be Postmark’s Raspberry Lemon Hefeweisen or Steel and Oak’s Smoked Hefeweisen.
Original Post: Vancity Buzz
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