Craft Beer and Craft Cocktails

Craft beer has become a worldwide movement supported by a dedicated, global following. Never before have so many flavors been available in beers, and, as a result, these beers are becoming more and more popular as cocktail ingredients. These cocktails excite the evolving consumers of today’s world who are looking to try new things, as well as the old things reinvented. Using craft beers you can put new spins on classic cocktails.

Which Beer?

When choosing a beer for a cocktail it can be easier to tailor your cocktail to the beer you wish to use. Use spirits that offer flavors that complement the characteristics of the beer your using, citrus flavors with IPAs, and rich coffee and chocolate flavors with stouts and porters. Equally, however, beer can be used to replace certain ingredients in cocktails; like a margarita made with a sour beer instead of lime juice. Also ensure your beer is fresh, especially if you’re looking to showcase or enhance the hop characteristic of the beer.

Longer Drinks and Lower ABV

Replacing am ingredient in a cocktail with beer has two potential outcomes. Firstly, it is almost certainly going to make the drink longer, and it can often lower the overall ABV of the beverage. With so many flavourful beers available nowadays we have the potential for new beer cocktails in which you can use non-alcoholic ingredients, think of the michelada and the shandy, which really can provide a unique yet low-ABV option for your cliental.

Local

Nowadays, everywhere has its “local” brewery and, at some point, you’ll probably find yourself serving this local product. If the beer is good for it, this will be the opportune time to create some beer cocktail for your bar. Drinking local is a huge movement and if people are visiting you from afar, or even just the next town, they’re going to want to try the local beers; henceforth they’re more likely to try your cocktails featuring the local tipple also.

If there are spirits produced locally and they pair well with the beers mentioned above then you have the potential to create a hyperlocal cocktail, and you could even name it after your area to draw peoples attention to it.

Guest Tap

Having a rotating guest tap is becoming a common concept. Often these beers are seasonal and can, sometimes, be full of quite obscure flavors. This doesn’t stop people from drinking them and, therefore, the unique flavor profiles found in these beers gives you and your bartenders the opportunity to create speciality cocktails that could prove popular with your local and visiting patrons. Doing this can also help you sell time sensitive kegs, such as pumpkin ales, and also provides your bartenders with the fun yet challenging task of coming up with excellent cocktails focusing around uncommon flavors.

Using craft beer in your craft cocktail selection can definitely boost the profile of your bar, your cocktail program and the profile of the beers you use. If you use those from a local brewery and collaborate with them, they could help further promote your business by recommending their visitors to visit your bar to taste your beer based cocktail selection.