Autumn Inspired Craft Beer Cocktails

Are you bored with your normal go-to cocktail and need some excitement in your life (or at least at Happy Hour)? Looking for a fun and unexpected way to serve your favorite craft brew? Maybe it’s time to take your palate on a ride and try a new type of poison, a Craft Beer Cocktail. These delicious drinks are not necessarily a new thing. Simple, non-liquor cocktail concoctions have been around for a while – think Black & Tan (dark stout and light-colored ale), The Snakebite (lager beer and hard apple cider), and Black Velvet (dark stout and Champagne). But with its rise in popularity, craft beer is getting lots of attention from the country’s top mixologists as a new favorite ingredient for creative cocktails. In the spirit of the fall season, we’ve provided some great Beer Cocktails that we think you’ll enjoy!

Caribbean Apple Pie

Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz rum
2 oz apple cider
1/2 oz lemon juice
4 oz spiced beer (try Samuel Adams Winter Lager)
1 apple slice
Cinnamon

Directions:

Shake together the rum, cider, and lemon juice. Strain the mixture into a glass. Add beer. Garnish with the apple and a shake of cinnamon.

Recipe courtesy of Men’s Health

http://www.menshealth.com/jimmy-bartender/beer-cocktails

Pumpkin Shandy

Image courtesy of Cointreau

Ingredients:

1 ounce Cointreau Orange Liqueur

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

1 bar spoon pumpkin butter

4-5 ounces pumpkin ale (We like Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale)

Fresh grated nutmeg for garnish

Directions:

Add Cointreau, lemon juice, pumpkin butter, and ice into a mixing glass. Shake and fine-strain over ice in a highball glass. Top with beer and garnish with fresh nutmeg

Recipe courtesy of about.com – Cointreau Master Mixologist, Kyle Ford

http://cocktails.about.com/od/cocktailrecipes/r/Pumpkin-Shandy-Beer-Drink-Recipe.htm

Old Fashioned Amber

Image courtesy of foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:
Ice
1/2 cup bourbon
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon bitters, such as Angostura or orange
2 12-ounce bottles amber ale (Try Green Flash’s Hop Head Red Ale)
4 strips orange peel (removed from the orange with a vegetable peeler)
4 maraschino cherries, optional

Directions:

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the bourbon, sugar and bitters and shake well. Strain into 4 rocks glasses and top each with half a bottle of ale. Rub the rim of the glass with the orange peel and then add it to the drink along with a cherry if using.

Recipe courtesy of Food Network Kitchens

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/old-fashioned-amber-recipe.html

Naughty & Nice Apple Shandy

Image courtesy of beermixology.com

Ingredients:

12 ounce bottle Honey Weiss (Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss or our own White House Honey Ale)

2 ounces lemonade

¾ fresh green apple (or honey crisp)

½ fresh green jalapeño pepper

¼ tablespoon ground cinnamon

¼ ounce maple syrup

Directions:

Drink 4 ounces Honey Weiss while preparing this beverage. Muddle chopped apple, diced jalapeño, and maple syrup with ½ ounce lemonade and ½ ounce Honey Weiss. Pour into cocktail shaker ¾ filled with crushed ice. Add remainder of lemonade and a pinch of cinnamon. Shake contents. Strain into an old fashioned or pint glass (shoot for a nice frothy foam). Gently add the remainder of the Honey Weiss to not diminish the foam. Stir gently under foam. Sprinkle with cinnamon and garnish with an apple slice.

Recipe courtesy of Derek Elefson, beermixology.com.

http://beermixology.com/2012/09/28/naughty-nice-spiced-apple-shandy/#more-1607