bier_cocktail

Top Five Beer Cocktails

Lagers, ales, and stouts add flavor and carbonation to mixed drinks. Below are five tasty tipples, in order of complexity.

Text by Camper English, photos by Heather Tyree

M any beer enthusiasts, like oenophiles and Scotch lovers, believe in the purity of their drink and don't welcome dilutions. Let them live in their gated communities. More open minds, and palates, recognize the simple pleasures of a Black and Tan (combining stout/porter and lager/ale) and a Snakebite (hard cider and lager). The whole is greater than the sum of its parts in each of these cases. The union of flavor begets a wholly original taste sensation. This has not been lost on better bartenders, who have been experimenting with beer in recent years. In addition to making the aforementioned classics, they're going to beer for effervescence, much like cocktails calling for a touch of Champagne or ginger ale. For this roundup, we chose to focus on beer-forward beverages that prove the stubborn purists wrong. The following drinks include some oldies-but-goodies, a few reinterpretations, and a couple of brand-new cocktails created by the nation's top mixologists. Hoppy days are here again.

Liquor-Free Cocktails like the Black Velvet

The most common beer "cocktails" contain no hard alcohol at all, they are simply equal parts of two types of beer or cider layered on top of each other in a pint glass. This includes a dark stout like Guinness with a light-colored ale in the Black and Tan, and lager beer and hard apple cider in the Snakebite. We'd also put the Black Velvet in this category, a mix of stout and Champagne best poured as follows: Fill glass halfway with bubbly, then pour stout over a spoon, slowly, to create a layered effect.

Fries and beer are an obvious (Belgian-inspired) pairing, but Champagne's bubbles work well with fatty foods too.

The meaty oils in this breakfast casserole beg for the richness (and carbonation) found in sweeter sparklers and beers.

Happy Mich

The Michelada is a refreshing cocktail, originally from Mexico, made with beer, lime juice, and hot sauce, served in a salt-rimmed glass over ice. Cocktail consultants The Tippling Brothers created several variations of the Michelada, including the Happy Mich, for Mercadito restaurants in New York. It retains the spicy/soothing format of the original beer cocktail, and brings some interesting hot seasonings, cooling watermelon, and hibiscus flavors into the mix.

Both cocktail and chips feature lime, spiciness, and salt. The crispness of the chips offers a textural counterpoint.

The hot salsa and chili powder in the dish match the drink's heat; the beer stands up to the strong cilantro, cumin, onion, and cheese flavors.

Popular in the U.K., where it's also known as a Shandygaff, this drink mixes equal parts beer with either ginger ale, ginger beer, or carbonated lemonade (some folks even use Sprite or alcoholic sodas like Smirnoff Ice and Mike's Hard Lemonade). If the drink has multiple sources of alcohol, it's called a TurboShandy. In the following recipe from Gourmet, fresh lemonade and mint are used instead of bottled products.

The light, lemony shandy pairs perfectly with spicy food. Try it with any hot Asian dish, such as this noodle salad.

The lemonade in the shandy makes it a go-to choice for barbecues; the chicken recipe can be prepared year-round.

Bartender Gina Chersevani developed this cheeky beer cocktail as a "cure" for the economic recession: It sells for the discounted price of $5 on her menu at PS 7's in Washington, DC. It combines a light, value-priced beer such as Miller High Life with a splash of juice and ginger liqueur.

Light beer and lemon will take the heat off these classic chicken wings.

The ginger in the drink is spicy like the mustard in the recipe and holds its own against the smoky meats in the sandwich.

The Stout Diplomat

Yanni Kehagiaras of San Francisco's Nopa restaurant created this dessert drink for a beer-cocktail competition. "The rum is in there to give this short beer cocktail a bit of a punch," he says. You could make it with a white rum instead of a dark or aged one and still focus on the beer, but the Diplomatico rum that Kehagiaras favors offers a caramel flavor and slight sweetness (instead of a spicy or funky rum) that seems less likely to clash with food flavors. The approach, like the drink, is likely to win fans on both sides of the beer/cocktail divide. It's a smart drink with wide appeal, befitting its name.

Kehagiaras designed this cocktail to be a dessert drink, but the weight and flavor of the stout will also stand up to the salt and oil of fish and chips.

Pairing a chocolate dessert with a chocolate dessert cocktail may seem like too much, but that's never stopped any chocoholics we know.

Camper English is a freelance cocktails and spirits writer for publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, and Imbibe Magazine, and is the publisher of Alcademics.com.

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Slate’s Definitive Guide to Beer Cocktails

A 12-Pack of Beer Cocktails

Notes on the theory and practice of the shandy, the michelada, and 10 other beer adulterations.

Photograph by Thinkstock.

The big wet story of this incandescent summer concerns your ice-cold beer, America. Ask yourself: Has that pint in your hand been sugared or spiced or juiced up? Repurposed as a mixer? Elevated with a jigger of liquor?

All the papers are onto you. News flows from all corners about happy marriages of stout and bourbon and about elderflower liqueurs fragrantly flirting with pale ales. Last May, Frank Bruni reported on “the advance of beer cocktails” (called such “whether or not the drinks include hard liquor”); this May brought notice of the book Beer Cocktails: 50 Superbly Crafted Cocktails that Liven Up Your Lagers and Ales (including the Maru—a fruity booze-up inside your Sapporo). The mass-market gateway to the new frontier stands in St. Louis, where Anheuser-Busch HQ has launched Shock Top Lemon Shandy, a wheat beer “perfectly complemented by spices and natural lemonade flavor.” And meanwhile the kids on happening Hillhurst Avenue in Los Angeles are infusing gin with hops, mixing it to make “Gin & Chronic,” and telling LA Weekly that it evokes a cottonmouthed hint of pilsner.

America, you drink 20 gallons of beer per head per year, and you’re definitely adulterating some of it. Yet, despite the efforts of cunning commerce and supple craft, the beer cocktail has never taken off as a respectable beverage. This is uncharted territory, exciting and dangerous. I sense your keen thirst for helpful hints, pro tips, and historical context.

America, I’m bringing over a 12-pack of pocket notes on the theory and practice of beer cocktails.

Troy Patterson is Slate’s writer at large and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine.

I shall begin by cracking open an Anchor Porter for (1) Porter Sangaree, or Porteree: dark beer with a dollop of something sweet and a garnish of grated nutmeg. This here partic’lar porteree relies on a dribble of maraschino liqueur.

For background about the general history of the sangaree, consult the scholarship of Dr. Cocktail. For a classic take on the porteree, see David Wondrich in Esquire. For a different mood, follow the whims of Food Newsie: “Add one or two shots (depending on your childhood) of Limoncino.” For a stout sangaree dressed up with a drizzle of brandy, look in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Bartending. For actual complete idiots, look to the comments on Huffington Post stories.

There, beneath a slide show highlighting beer cocktails, you can see ninnies dismissing the category categorically: “What a waste of good beer.” I anticipate that similar philistines will object to the article you are reading, and though they are scarcely worth the procatalepsis, I will point them to the fine tradition of the (2) Shandygaff.

Charles Dickens described this concoction, sometimes rendered Shandy Gaff, as "an alliance between beer and pop." Since the 1800s, some of us have found it agreeable to twirl together earthy English ale and snappy ginger beer. Each elixir celebrates the other—an herbal interplay you could help further along with a squeeze of lemon or dash of orange bitters. The old-school shandygaff is great drink for such outdoor activities as reading detective novels on a patio, attempting hedge mazes, and officiating badminton matches from a hammock.

The shandygaff has evolved into (3) the Shandy. One version, often known as Lemon Shandy, involves trickling an ounce or two of fresh lemonade into a shy little beer. In addition to Shock Top, Samuel Adams, Harp, Saranac, and Labatt are pushing forward into the realm of selling premixed shandies along these lines. In so doing, they follow the English brewers who bottle the most famous sort of modern shandy, an alliance of lager and “lemonade.”

All this weekend, in Boston and Washington and Philadelphia, sweat-glazed British tourists will toe into bars and try to order a shandy. If you see one of these persons, clammy as an uncooked veal cutlet, encountering any difficulty getting one, do the right thing and offer a translation. Gently remind the bartender that Britons tend not to speak English correctly: When they say lemonade, they mean a carbonated lemon soda roughly approximated by 7-Up, not the cloudy yellow stuff you purchase when taking pity on urchins sitting roadside with pitchers and Dixie cups.

I had been keenly excited to disenjoy my first shandy. Prejudging it as cloying silliness, I had rough drafts of fine insults all ready to roll. Thus, I was disappointed to find that a basic dive-bar shandy made with lager and Sprite is an easy pleasure. It is kind of sweet, yeah, but only half so sweet as soda and twice as interesting, with the two flavors fusing into a zesty third.

In France, a shandy is a Panaché. In Germany, it is a Radler, which belongs to a category of beer cocktails described, naturally, by a mammoth compound noun: Biermischgetränke. In time for the Olympics, someone please invent a drinking game predicated on exploiting the many worldwide variations on this beer spritzer so that a Cuban dissident rooting against his native land’s boxers quaffs a Bul (beer, ginger ale, lime juice), while an Argentinian watching basketball sips a mix of lager and orange Fanta with every basket.

I strongly recommend experimenting with shandy adaptations. The alliance over ice of an I.P.A. and a gourmet grapefruit soda will fortify your yuppie picnic. But maybe you’re playing around with something less rarified, like the Broadway, a combo of lager and Coca-Cola, which is full of brightly bitter surprises. In that case, use a beer that is neither conspicuously awesome nor flagrantly crappy. Red Stripe works nicely, and you will be thankful, as day spills into evening, that its squat bottle has a low center of gravity.

Beware of mixing lager and tonic if you’re in a fragile mood. Its bitterness is nothing less than poignant. A member of the beer-cocktail tasting panel I assembled described the Tonic Shandy as “something you would drink, alone, in the tropics while thinking about that woman you really should have written a letter to before it was too late.”

The point should be obvious, but we would be remiss not to state outright that the lightness of the shandy recommends it as a summertime refreshment. Like (4) the Cincinnati Cocktail—one part muscular microbrew, one part chilled soda water, no ice, all good—it’s good for when you want to spend the whole afternoon in the sun drinking while keeping your wits about you. It’s also good for when you just spent the whole afternoon in the sun drinking and need to ease up before—“Oh, oooh, really sorry. Let me pay for [the next round/the cleaning bill/the cost of pet cremation].”

Let us briefly lurch down Mexico-way to consider the (5) Michelada and similar drinks such as the Chelada and the Chavela.

Translating michelada, we encounter a diminutive endearment: My little cold one, it chimes, in a tone indicating that you should cherish its vivid assembly of lime juice, seasoning, salt, and Mexican lager. Perhaps this explains why people who get dogmatic about the drink—quibbling over nuances regarding Maggi and Worcestershire sauces—tend toward possessiveness and protectiveness. Many people have many opinions about when a michelada can be called a michelada, but none deny that whatever you call it, it tastes best served at a resort-hotel swim-up bar.

The matter of adding tomato juice to a Mexican beer, as in a Cerveza Preparada, brings us to the matter of (6) Red Beer, also known as Red Eye: beer mixed with tomato juice. Jane and Michael Stern put a few away in Oregon for their book Two for the Road, and report that “the exact ratio can vary from an effervescent five to one, in which the beer is merely flavored, to a two-to-one mix as fruity as a drink in a health-food juice bar.” (Similar drinks include Red Rooster, Tomboy, Bloody Beer, Red Eye à la Cocktail, The Brutus and the kinetic Ugly.)

Red beer, made in the spiceless traditional fashion, isn’t terribly thrilling, but it has a certain country-club appeal, a cheerful WASP calm. Goes well with Triscuits, spills well on tennis whites.

In its brunchiness, the red beer bears some relation to the (7) Beermosa, which is perfectly self-explanatory and only mildly gross.

This brings us to (8) the Boilermaker—beer with a shot of whiskey in it—but are we sure we want to go there? Its name is redolent of Rust Belt bars serving 50-cent beers at 10 in the morning. Its tradition embraces the Beer Buster (beer with vodka and Tabasco) and the Dog’s Nose (beer with gin in it). (Actually, the Dog’s Nose might not count, as it dates from an era when Londoners put gin in everything.)

The uncountable number of variations on the basic boilermaker points us to a law of human nature: Anything that can be put in beer will be put in beer, including peaty scotches, fruity liqueurs, and other beers.

But this is not the place to get bogged down discussing the depth charges, car bombs, and theatrical bad ideas with which young people amuse themselves—except to note that a teenager banging a table in a sushi restaurant to detonate a sake bomb is continuing a distinctive undistinguished tradition. Here is David Wondrich in The Oxford Companion to Beer: “Beer features prominently in what may be called ‘folk mixology’: mixology that takes places in the field, without the mediation of a trained bartender.” We are talking, in other words, about traditions passed along orally at dive bars and in off-campus undergraduate housing, in a manner similar to, and indeed sometimes coincident with, herpes of the mouth. In the 21 st century, thank goodness, the Internet collects such knowledge, so that an anthropologist stumbling across Urban Dictionary can discover an improbably heavenly concoction called the Orange Blastaphon (three parts wheat beer, one part gin, one part Fresca or Wink or Squirt): “Sounds terrible but it is actually refreshingly delicious.”

Wondrich cites the 1970s-style (9) Beer Margarita, equal parts cheap beer, frozen limeade concentrate, and tequila, as the “very model of the popular American beer cocktail," but I respectfully wonder whether that distinction more properly belongs to (10) The Skip and Go Naked.

The skip and go naked is a punch traditionally made with thinly fizzing domestic lager, frozen lemonade, and gin or vodka—or gin and vodka—plus whatever else at hand looks good. When made with pink lemonade, the skip and go naked is known as The Pink Panty Dropper. Its most evocative cognomen is The Porchcrawler—one unhyphenated word, with the crunch of consonants enhancing its cinematic imagery. You can feel the floor beams creaking under your knees.

The skip and go naked has been in circulation since at least the mid-1960s, when a Rochester, N.Y., rock group called The Invictas was distinguishing itself as the great upstate bar-band of the first garage-rock era. The lyrics for “Skip ‘N Go Naked,” a reunion-tour ditty, memorialize the band’s golden days:

In the back seat of my car,

The windows got steamed up.

The cops knocked on the door,

Said, “Get your clothes back on”

We blamed it on our drinking.

I enthusiastically recommend this reader-submitted Epicurious recipe for the pink panty dropper. (“If it's hot, you're low on cash, and want to have a lot of fun, this is the answer!”) The recipe below represents a pastiche of wisdom from it and the following websites: DrunkInCollege.com, AskMen.com, Food.com, CoedMagazine.com, GroupRecipes.com, and Boozemixer.com. I am especially inclined to credit the Boozemixer recipe on account of the author’s academic credentials and the extracurricular expertise they imply: “drink recipe by: CSU Chico Student.”

Best made in big batches, this is a great alternative to Jungle Juice.

Start with a CLEAN 5-gallon bucket of some sort. Seriously, anything.

Mix four cans of frozen pink-lemonade concentrate with the cheapest handle of 80-proof vodka available.

Pour in a case of canned beer. Get the worst beer you can. Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) and Miller Genuine Draft (MGD) are always good here because they’re watery. Cheap Canadian beers are even better. You could also step things up and substitute a 30 pack of Natty Ice.

It's rather unavoidable that there will be a LOT of head from all that beer, but it will go down after a while. Also, don't be concerned about the beer going flat as the day goes on. You won't be able to notice.

Be in a safe place. Toss some ice in a glass or clear plastic cup and drink responsibly!

Determined to invent an upscale version of this drink, I walked into my regular place and asked for something like a Tom Collins, but topped with beer instead of soda water. The bartender and I tinkered our way into using Cherry Heering, the brandy-based Danish liqueur, as the sweetener. Its dark-cherry ripeness was divine.

The drink was a winner, but the problem was what to call it. There is no dignity in requesting a Skip and Go Naked Cocktail, and my whole point had been to concoct an adult beverage that a real live adult might actually order. Obviously, we couldn’t call it the Pink Panty Dropper Cocktail, either, because the finished drink is not so much pink as puce. So ladies and gentlemen, as a matter of default, with a measure of pride, I give you (11) Slate’s Porchcrawler Cocktail.

Boom: A porchcrawler cocktail is wrought with 2 ounces gin, ¾ ounce fresh lemon juice, ¾ ounce Cherry Heering, and ¼ ounce simple syrup. Shake these with ice. Strain this into a chilled Collins glass filled ¾ with ice. Top with cold wheat beer—ideally a Bavarian crystal wheat.

Whatever success you have crawling from the porch to the place you’re supposed to be sleeping, you’re going to be sleeping, eventually, after a few of these. And when you wake up (as you probably will), you’ll want a (12) Black Velvet.

The black velvet originated, according to legend, to mourn the 1861 death of Prince Albert, and it is the perfect balm for your hangover. Its excellence is a matter not only of its texture—Guinness and Champers combined to soul-soothing effect—but also of its process. There will be a LOT of head on this cocktail unless you pour these liquids very carefully. Forcing yourself to concentrate on the task will prove a restorative exercise. This is the new morning in America: The most elegant of the beer cocktails draws a cool curtain against the day’s punishing heat and the night’s punishing excess.

Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. All contents © 2017 The Slate Group LLC. All rights reserved.

13 Beer Cocktails Your Pregame Needs

You're going to love these.

Beer is good but beer cocktails are better. Here are 10 beer cocktail recipes that will make you think, Why don't I always have beer cocktails?

Combine 1 oz. fresh squeezed citrus juice (orange and lemon) with 3 oz. sweetened butterfly pea tea. Top with 4 oz. Blue Moon Belgian White. Serve over ice and orange slices, and garnish with an orange wheel.

Add 1.5 oz. Crown Royal Vanilla to 1 pint Pumpkin Ale.

In a glass, add 8 oz. Leinenkugel’s Watermelon Shandy, 3 oz. ginger ale, a splash of simple syrup, and a splash of club soda. Garnish with a watermelon slice, lemon, lime, and orange.

In a pilsner glass filled with ice, add 1 1/2 oz. Svedka Strawberry Lemonade, 1 oz. iced tea, 1/2 oz. simple syrup, 1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice, and a splash of Corona Extra. Stir briefly, and garnish with a slice of lemon and a strawberry.

In a glass filled with ice, add 4 oz. Austin Eastciders Blood Orange Cider, 1 ½ oz. bourbon, and 1 tbsp. agave. Top it with 1 jalapeño slice, stir, and garnish with a lime slice.

In a large wine glass, combine 8 oz. lemonade with 8 oz. Stella Artois Cidre, and garnish with a lemon wedge.

Pour 1 1/2 oz. Svedka Colada, 2 oz. lemonade, and the juice of 1 lemon wedge in a shaker. Add ice, and shake briefly. Strain into a pint glass, and top with Corona Light. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

In a Collins glass, muddle 8 sprigs fresh cilantro and 1 lime. Add ½ tsp. agave syrup, and fill with ice. Add 6 oz. Stella Artois Cidre, then stir thoroughly. Top with a splash of soda water.

In a large wine glass, combine 4 oz. lemonade with 4 oz. iced tea. Add a splash (approx. 1 tsp.) of rosemary simple syrup, and top with 8 oz. Stella Artois Cidre. Garnish with lemon wheels and 1 sprig rosemary.

Mix ½ oz. simple syrup, ½ oz. fresh lemon juice, and ¾ oz. pineapple juice with 4 dashes of chai bitters. Shake dry. Pour over ice into a Collins glass, and top with Stella Artois Cidre. Garnish with a fresh lemon twist.

Combine 1½ oz. lime juice , ½ oz. agave nectar, and zest of 1 lime in a glass. Add beer, and stir gently. Garnish with a lime wheel.

In a shaker filled with ice, add 1 ½ oz. Jameson Irish Whiskey, 1 oz. lime juice, ¼ oz. simple syrup, 5 dashes of bitters, and ½ oz. ginger beer in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake, and strain into a glass. Top with beer.

Muddle 4 raspberries, 6 blueberries, and 3 mint leaves in a cocktail shaker. Add 1½ oz. tequila silver and 1½ oz. sour mix, and shake. Strain into a glass filled with ice, and top with beer.

Source: Haven at The Sanctuary Hotel

Beer Cocktail Recipes

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7 Fun Beer Cocktail Recipes

The popularity of both artisinal breweries and proper mixology bars continues to rise, and at the convergence of these two beverage trends you will find the resurgence of the beer cocktail.

Cheap and easy to make, these light cocktails are a hit any time of year. The idea of a beer cocktail might strike you as odd in the beginning, but after tasting these fruity, fun beverages you will be asking for more – and maybe even dreaming up your own recipes in the process!

Shandy – This refreshing drink is one of the original and easiest beer cocktails, and is a popular item on drink menus in the UK, Europe and Australia. Mix equal parts lemonade and light lager, and voila. Remember that in most parts of the world, lemonade is carbonated – so add a squirt of soda water if you are using the non-fizzy, American kind.

Variations: Add a touch of grenadine and you’ll have a Monaco, a French version of the shandy. Mix your lager with ginger ale instead of lemonade, and you will have a Shandygaff. Choose hard apple cider instead of lemonade, and you’ve got a Snakebite on your hands.

Michelada – A traditional hangover remedy, the Michelada is part beer, part Bloody Mary and works equally well as a morning pick-me-up or an early evening party-starter. Run a slice of lime around the rim of a chilled glass, and then dip it in salt. Fill with ice, the juice of one lime (or lemon), 2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce, 1-2 dashes of Tabasco and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Mix well with a spoon, then fill the glass with Mexican beer such as Corona or Sol. You can leave the ice out altogether if you want a stronger drink, or for a real kick-in-the-teeth, some hard-core recipes also add a shot of tequila at the same time as the ice.

Black Velvet – Fans of wine spritzers might want to try this cocktail, a creamy combination that shouldn’t work – but does. Fill a flute with one part chilled stout (such as Guinness), then float one part champagne or sparkling white wine on top (pouring the wine slowly over the back of a spoon into the glass). This dark drink was created in London in 1861 for Prince Albert’s funeral.

Black & Tan – This classic beer cocktail also uses the over-the-spoon pouring technique to create a layered look in the glass. Traditionally this drink is made with Bass Pale Ale and Guinness Stout; however you can just choose your favorite brews (and if you don’t like stouts – try a porter). Fill a chilled beer glass halfway full with the ale, then pour the darker beer slowly on top via the spoon. Try to finish it before the two colors combine.

Lunch Box – Also called the Cincinnati Lunch Box, this fruity cocktail is reminiscent of the Monaco. Start with a frothy Hefeweizen and fill a chilled beer glass ¾ of the way up. Top it off with freshly squeezed orange juice, then add a shot of amaretto liqueur (such as Disaronno). Garnish with an orange wheel and cherry.

Irish Car Bomb – Every college kid in America knows this drink, which when done right, tastes just like a milkshake – but goes down even faster. Fill a beer glass halfway to the top with Guinness. Fill a shot glass with one part Irish whiskey and one part Baileys Irish Cream. Now gently drop the shot glass into the beer – and down it. Prepare to get bombed.

Brass Monkey – This one’s just for fun, and was inspired by the Beastie Boy’s hit song “Brass Monkey.” After you drink off the top portion of your 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor (such as Old English), add orange juice to fill it back up. Now you’ve got a Brass Monkey, and you are ready to fight for your right to party.

Shilo Urban

Shilo first became interested in conscious living when she found herself working simultaneously at a mom-and-pop natural food store and a farm for endangered livestock breeds on the coast of Maine. After residing in Austin, New Zealand, Paris, Seattle, and Los Angeles, she now lives in Fort Worth, Texas where she works as a freelance writer. Her passions include international travel and wiener dogs.

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Recipe: Weiss Bier Cocktail With Charred Orange and Bourbon

Weiss Bier Cocktail With Charred Orange and Bourbon

Note: You will need a cocktail shaker with strainer and 2 wide-mouthed glasses for this cocktail. Adapted from “Gastro Grilling,” by Ted Reader.

• 1 juicy seedless orange

• 4 oz. (1/2 c. ) bourbon, divided

• 2 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. honey, divided

• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 1/2 tsp. minced fresh thyme

• Drizzle of orange liqueur (such as triple sec)

• 2 (12-oz.) bottles wheat beer (also called Weissbier, Hefeweizen, Witbier)

Fire up your grill to 450 to 550 degrees.

Slice orange into 8 quarter-inch-thick rounds and place in a bowl. Drizzle slices with about 2 tablespoons bourbon (1 oz.) and 2 tablespoons honey. Season with black pepper and thyme, and gently mix. Marinate orange slices for about 10 minutes.

Grill orange slices for 2 to 3 minutes on both sides, until lightly charred and tender. Set aside to cool.

Coarsely chop 2 to 3 slices of charred orange, and place in a cocktail shaker. Add 2 teaspoons honey, 3 ounces (3/8 cup) bourbon and a drizzle of orange liqueur. Mash with a wooden spoon, then add ice. Put lid on shaker and shake it up to cool.

Strain bourbon into 2 chilled wide-mouth glasses. Add a slice or two of charred orange to each glass and pour in the chilled beer and serve immediately.

Nutrition information per serving:

Carbohydrates 42 g

Saturated fat 0 g

Total sugars 28 g

Cholesterol 0 mg

Dietary fiber 1 g

No diabetic exchanges.

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Ginger Beer and Ginger Ale Cocktail Recipes

Ginger ale and ginger beer add a refreshing spice to mixed drinks

Ginger ale, and its spicier, fermented cousin ginger beer, are ideal cocktail mixers. The effervescence lightens up a summery highball, while the ginger's bite tames spirits. We've rounded up our favorite ginger ale and ginger beer cocktail recipes.

Ginger ale and ginger beer can both be purchased, but it's fun and easy to make them on your own. For ginger ale, simply make a syrup out of water, ginger, sugar, and a dash of black peppercorns, then mix it with soda water. To make ginger beer, brew up a similar ginger mixture and add in spices and champagne yeast. Strain the mixture, bottle it, and after a day of fermentation you have your very own ginger beer!

Whether you make or buy, you've got delicious recipes to try. The Moscow Mule is a classic mix of ginger beer and vodka. If you steep the vodka with lemongrass and grapefruit to make aquavit then you have a variation called a Swedish Mule, while swapping the vodka out for gin and adding a little mint makes a Gin-Gin Mule.

The Dark 'N Stormy is another classic ginger beer cocktail, with black rum and ginger beer swirling together like storm clouds. The Black and Stormy is a variation that kicks up the spice with ginger liqueur.

For a summertime drink for your next cookout, mix together a pitcher of our Strawberry Pimm's Cup with ginger ale and kaffir lime leaves.

Check out all of our favorite ginger ale and ginger beer cocktail recipes, plus recipes for homemade ginger beer and ginger syrup!

Any of these cocktails can be made with store-bought ginger beer. But if you want to go the extra mile, you can brew your own from scratch.

Not quite up to brewing your own ginger beer? An easier option is to make your own ginger ale by cooking up a batch of this ginger syrup and mixing it with soda water.

Inspired by our list of Friday cocktails, bartender Michael Neff noticed that bitter flavors were prominent, as were fizzy drinks made with fresh fruit and herbs. To that end, he created a modified Pimm's Cup, using Cynar to add a bit more bitter tang and ginger beer for spice. Fresh fruit and herbs round out the (almost) traditional summer refresher.

By trademark, this Bermudan combination of rum and ginger beer requires Gosling's Black Seal Rum; similar drinks with names like dark 'n foggy or light 'n stormy use other rums.

A refreshing marriage between a Tom Collins and a Dark n' Stormy, this lime and ginger beer-spiked gin cocktail has an intriguing herbal undertone thanks to Amaro Abano, a zesty Italian digestif with notes of bitter orange, cardamom, and white pepper.

This vodka-and–ginger beer libation is traditionally served in a copper mug.

In this Moscow Mule variation, vodka is infused with lemongrass and grapefruit to make aquavit.

This Moscow Mule variation is made with gin and mint.

Black-currant-flavored crème de cassis adds fruity dimension and a lovely pink hue to this ginger beer and tequila cocktail from the 1940s.

This variation on the El Diablo swaps crème de cassis for black currant jam and earthy honey.

Martin Cate of Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco combines Chartreuse and ginger ale in this refreshing tropical drink.

Spiced rum and fiery ginger beer combine with tart cranberry juice in this flavorful cool-weather cocktail.

This sweet-tart wine punch was invented by members of the Junior League of Houston book club in the 1970s.

This chilled cider punch combines the fall flavors of a mulled cider with the celebratory feel of a sparkling punch.

Vodka, ginger beer, and muddled pear make for a tart and refreshing cocktail perfect for sipping on a cool fall evening.

This version of a classic tiki drink mixes two kinds of rum with a variety of fruit juices and syrups.

A twist on the British classic, this summer cooler takes on spicy, herbal notes from Kaffir lime leaves, while strawberries lend sweet balance to the pleasingly bitter liqueur. Get the recipe for Strawberry Pimm's Cup »

A mix of Campari, Pimm's No. 1, and ginger beer, this drink makes an excellent warm weather apéritif.

This recipe for a modified Dark and Stormy uses fresh ginger juice for a kick of refreshing heat.

This twist on a mojito combines pineapple- and coconut-infused rum with fresh pineapple and mint for a fruity, vacation-inspired drink.

This bubbly cocktail features champagne, ginger beer, rhubarb, cardamom, and just a hint of vanilla.

"Bucks" are a family of drinks that consist of ginger beer plus a spirit and citrus—a category that includes this fruity refresher as well as the classic Moscow Mule. Get the recipe for Kentucky Buck »

This simple highball mixes cognac with ginger beer and a spiral peel of a whole lemon.

Recipes

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In Germany, the beer hall is a communal gathering place where people can enjoy the company of friends and family.

Das Bier Haus invites people to embrace the experience; indulge in the finest variety of traditional gourmet food and specialty sausages from across the world.

Get to know your neighbors over a stein bier or signature cocktail influenced by German roots.

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Better-than-Champagne Recipe: Fizzy Citrus & Beer Pitcher Cocktail

It's a sad, sad tale, and one that's no doubt caused a few New Year's tears over the years — being saddled with an allergy to Champagne and feeling a little left out during the Auld Lang Syne toast.

That's the case for one of my very dear friends, with whom we've been ringing in the New Year for the past decade. While he's content to raise a bottle of Sam Adams in lieu of a Champagne flute, this year I've decided to give him something special and bubbly that mimics the festive feel of a sparkling wine without the pounding headaches. (Spoiler alert: It involves beer!)

Fizzy Citrus Beer Cocktail: Watch the Video

You can pick a lambic that's been fermented with fruit, like the widely available Lindemans lineup of apple, cherry, peach, raspberry, and cassis, or you can go straight with a gueuze, which is a fruit-free, sour blend of pure lambic beer. Gueuze tends to be a little more puckery, so keep that in mind — I'm particularly fond of The Bruery's Rueuze.

Pair that sour Belgian beer with a dry hard cider — sparkling or still, either is fine, as long as it's crisp and verging on truly dry instead of sweet. I'm a huge fan of everything from the small-batch New Hampshire cidery Farnum Hill, as well as the unfiltered French-style Lapinette from Michigan's Virtue Cider.

For the crowning touch, Meyer lemon simple syrup brightens everything out with a hint of lush perfumed citrus, and a Meyer lemon sugar rim is appropriately festive. Seriously, who needs Champagne anyway?

Fizzy Citrus & Beer Pitcher Cocktail

1/4 cup + 1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided

1 (25-ounce/750-milliliter) bottle lambic beer

1 (25-ounce/750-milliliter) bottle dry cider

For the Meyer lemon sugar for rimming the glasses: Preheat the oven to 200°F. Zest one of the Meyer lemons, preferably with a fine-toothed zester like a Microplane. Pulse the lemon zest in a mini food processor with 1/4 cup granulated sugar for about 15 seconds to release the zest's natural oils.

Pour the sugar onto a small rimmed baking sheet and shake gently to spread the sugar out evenly across the pan. Place the pan in the oven and turn the oven off. Let the sugar dry in the oven for 30 minutes.

Pour the sugar into a shallow bowl for rimming the glasses. Leftover sugar can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

For the Meyer lemon simple syrup: Juice the Meyer lemons, including the one you zested for the sugar. You should have about 1/4 cup juice.

Whisk 1/3 cup granulated sugar together with 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid comes to a simmer and the sugar is fully dissolved. Pour the syrup into a heat-safe bowl and cool to room temperature. Once cool, stir in the Meyer lemon juice. This syrup can be stored in a lidded jar in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

For the cocktails: For each cocktail, wet the rim of a Champagne flute or coupe with a damp paper towel, then dip into the sugar.

To make a batch cocktail: Combine the lambic, cider, and citrus-infused simple syrup in a pitcher. Stir gently to combine.

To make individual cocktails: Pour 1/4 cup lambic, 1/4 cup cider, and 1 tablespoon Meyer lemon simple syrup into each sugar-rimmed glass.

• Calories 65
• Fat 0.1 g (0.1%)
• Saturated 0 g (0.1%)
• Carbs 16.4 g (5.5%)
• Fiber 0.1 g (0.5%)
• Sugars 15.4 g
• Protein 0.1 g (0.1%)
• Sodium 2.5 mg (0.1%)

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