Bartender defends beer cocktails
Guest post from Jacob Grier, the head bartender at Carlyle in Portland, who writes the blog Liquidity Preference.
As Rob noted recently, making cocktails with beer is to enter strange territory -- sometimes delicious, sometimes an easy way to ruin perfectly good beer (beer and melon liqueur, anyone?). Today we'll take a look at a couple beer cocktails that hopefully fall into the former category.
Both of these drinks combine Belgian beers with gin. You might think this is no way to treat a great Belgian, and most of the time I'd agree! But my take is that, as with all cocktails, you should use the best ingredients for the job. These strong, aromatic ales play really well with the botanicals in gin; mixed together, they offer interesting new ways of tasting some old favorites.
First up is the Green Devil, created by beer writer Stephen Beaumont. Stephen taught this drink at last year's Tales of the Cocktail event in New Orleans, in a seminar about using beer as an ingredient in cocktails; it turned out to be one of my favorites from the trip.
To make it you'll need:
1 bottle of Duvel
1 oz gin
absinthe to rinse the Duvel glass
Rinse the glass with absinthe and pour out the excess. Go easy! Too much absinthe will absolutely dominate the drink. Add in the gin (Stephen recommends Martin Miller's). Finally, pour in the Duvel, aiming for a big, foamy head. The result is a very tasty beverage with a nice anise aroma from the absinthe.
The next drink comes from bartender Neil Kopplin, my predecessor at Portland's Carlyle restaurant, now behind the bar at Clyde Common. This play on the classic French 75 substitutes Chimay for Champagne:
1 bottle Chimay Premiere (red label)
3/4 oz gin (Neil recommends Aviation)
1 lemon wedge
Pour the Chimay into a chalice. Stir the gin over ice and pour into the beer, and finish by squeezing the lemon wedge and dropping it into the glass. This makes another nice drink and lightens up the malty Chimay; consider this one for a hot summer day.
Both of these drinks put Belgian ales to creative use, adding intriguing layors of flavor to some great beers. If you try them out, let me know what you think. Just go easy: These beers are strong enough on their own and an extra shot of gin gives them an even bigger punch.
Comments
does sound like a way to mess up a perfectly good beer.
A beer hacker drinks his way to the truth: Beervana
Posted by: Beervana | June 20, 2009 9:03 PM
"Beer cocktail" seems sort of a priori disgusting, and I said as much on the post that serves as this post's source.
And I think it stays that way as long as we think only of boilermakers and micheladas. But reading these, they make perfect sense.
Using a complex beer like a belgian in place of a complex spirit and then using gin as something like a bitter....it's a concept bordering on magical thinking. I'll be putting these to the test as soon as I can.
Also, I was already a reader of LP so it was jarring but pleasing to see you pop up over here. Good work all 'round.
Posted by: Jim | June 21, 2009 10:59 AM
Sounds pretty good. Almost seems like more gin could be used.
I like beer in Bloody Marys. Adds a nice flavor and helps lighten up really thick mixes.
Posted by: Ryan Graham | June 21, 2009 6:49 PM
I usually make beer cocktails when I am stuck with lousy beer. Hate throwing them out so I usually experiment with various mixes. Its usually (but not always, unfortunately) an improvement.
Posted by: BrickGrill | June 22, 2009 9:19 AM
Hey Jim,
It was a nice surprise seeing you here too!
Posted by: Jacob | June 22, 2009 11:51 AM
Beer cocktails? Not sure what to think....
Posted by: hangover cure | June 28, 2009 4:28 PM
Thanks for the Green Devil love, Jacob. Amazing to see how beer cocktails are gaining acceptance these days -- Jim's evolution of thinking is typical, to my experience.
I was interviewed last week for (yet another) beer cocktails story, this one set to run in the NY Times July 1, I'm told.
Posted by: Stephen Beaumont | June 30, 2009 9:34 AM