Pre-Game Rituals?

Ever have a couple drinks before hitting the bars? We think it makes sense (only for some – don’t forget to be responsible) for a couple reasons. It saves you money because you can order less drinks at the bar. It also gives you a good excuse to have people over and get friends together. Even though you’ll be out with all of your buddies soon enough… its fun to see people without the crazy crowds and before you need to play wingman for your best friend.

So we want to know, do you have any pregame rituals? What do you usually pre-game with?

The Beer Cocktail- the newest thing!

June 21^st  may mark the approved start of summer, but it’s been heating up around these parts for the last few weeks now and we’ve been settling toward the cold brews to quench our thirst. But rising temperature is no reason to give up on cocktails entirely this season! We thought it’d be a good time to revisit some of these beer-based drinks, while discovering new ones, to work double duty in keeping you refreshed in the months ahead.

And don’t worry, these aren’t going to recall bad memories of certain shot-in-glass beverages like the Irish Car Bomb and its faux Japanese cousin, the Sake Bomb. There are a lot of great ways to enjoy beer and cocktails together with taste – and not necessarily intoxication (no chugging) – in mind.

Don’t forget to tell us what your favorite beer-based cocktails are!

 

Los Feliz Michelada

2 oz tomato juice (sangrita)
1/2 oz lime juice
Spice to desired heat (Tabasco, Valentina,etc)

Pour over favorite Mexican beer in salted rim Collins glass (pint or water glass will work), half ice, garnish with a lime.

Black Velvet

1 part Guinness stout
1 part Brut Champagne

Fill an empty Collins glass part-way with a Guinness (or other stout beer), top with Champagne. Stir.

Groundskeeper

Pour 1 oz ultrasmoky single-malt Scotch, such as Ardbeg or Laphroaig, into a pint glass. Add 12 oz chilled Bud or other American pilsner.

Bee Sting

Combine equal parts beer and orange juice. A tangy brunch alternative to the Mimosa!

St. Germain Shandy

5 parts Pilsner beer
1.5 parts St-Germain
2 lemon wedges

Stir ingredients together in a pint glass filled halfway to the top with ice. Squeeze two wedges (or half a lemon) and submerge into glass. Impress revelers with savoir faire of refreshing cocktails de bière.

Beer Appellation!

BEER CAPS

Where wine is concerned, the topic of appellation is very clear-cut when it involves wine. Grow the fruit in a given region and you earn that area’s appellation. Of course other rules and regulations have to be valid what wines are able to boast specific sub-designations such as the Italian reservas or the crus of French Bordeaux. This allows a consumer to know the prestige and respect of certain wines.

 Beer appellation, however, has less to do with growing regions than it does places of consumption. The soul of a brew is found not in the soil, but in the café, the beer hall or the tavern. You might say this is crazy, but the truth is, the environment of any drink will affect the enjoyment and pleasure of it. If you remove the beverage from its ideal position and while it will smell and taste the same, the perception of those aromas and flavors will in all probability change. Beer is however exacerbated by the fact that certain styles allow an almost physically emotional connection to their areas of origin.

It is a bond that goes beyond the mere romance of a glass of Dom Pergnion sipped on a terrace in Paris overlooking the Rhone River or a pint of Guinness supped in a Dublin pub. It is a relationship that, like wine appellations, speaks to the very understanding of the drink. Although most winemakers are reliant on the soils at this disposal and agrarian skills to produce the grapes that will become wine, brewers have at their disposal barley, hops and yeast plus more ingredients. They can alter the profiles of their tap water and so on. But what no brewery has is replicating the conditions and traditions of the classic beer styles.

 After all a beer’s appellation is not where it is made, but where it is enjoyed!