MIXOLOGY

BEER & CIDER COCKTAILS

BEER a CIDER
COCKTAILS
When it comes to innovation, mixologists are thinking outside the spirits box
BY SALLY KRAL

A
s the U.S. mixology scene mixologists are proving that noth-
becomes increasingly ing is off-limits. “Every item in the
crowded, bartenders are bar is a potential ingredient,” says
constantly seeking ways to stand Steven Baird, owner of Cardiff
out, says Bill Nichols, bar manager Giant in Brooklyn, New York.
at Faun in Brooklyn, New York. “Beer and cider cocktails are an
“The omnipresence of cocktails in extension of that thinking.”
today’s bar and restaurant scene For many bartenders, using beer
is pushing bartenders to experi- and cider in cocktails keeps them
ment more with nontraditional on their toes because the product
ingredients,” he adds. selection is constantly growing.
Eric Brooks, bar manager of “Each season, new, delicious beers
CBD Provisions in Dallas, says and ciders are released, providing
that given the popularity of craft an ever-changing palate of flavors
beer and cider, incorporating for creating new cocktails,” says
them into cocktails is a natural Tyler Rathje, food and beverage
progression. “Using beer and cider manager at Big Bar in the Hyatt
in your cocktails is a great way to Regency Chicago. “This not only
let your customer base know that creates fun new challenges for
your bar is progressive and mixing cocktails, but also keeps
light-hearted at the same time,” your cocktail list fresh from
he says. “Playing it safe is no fun. season to season as new releases
More bar patrons today are willing come out.”
to try new things and be adventur-
PHOTO BY KRISSY CLARK

ous with their drinking choices.” Take Your Pick

Today’s cocktail drinkers are In the Daring Drake cocktail at Cardiff Giant in Brooklyn, Just as a gin or whisk(e)y will have
indeed more open to the nontra- the tartness of a Spanish-style cider brings out new different characteristics depend-
ditional, and boundary-breaking flavors from rum, raspberry liqueur and citrus juices. ing on the style, region of origin

2 M A R K ET WATCH | MA R KE T WATC HMAG.C OM | S EPTEMBER 2 017

 Bartenders have found creative ways to use beer and cider in cocktails. The Pimm’s Cup #18 (left) at Dusek’s Board & Beer features a cucum-
ber syrup made with Allagash White beer. The Soleil Colada (right) at Cardiff Giant combines sour farmhouse beer with rum and coconut milk.
and production method, beer can vary widely in flavor and
texture, making it a fun and challenging ingredient to use
in cocktails. “We can find an extremely wide range of
flavors in the many beer styles produced around the world
from the different yeast choices, malt roasts and hop selec-
tion,” says Rob Boyd, bar manager at Dusek’s Board & Beer
in Chicago.
Faun’s Nichols also notes this wide range of possibilities
when choosing a beer to use in a cocktail. “The different
styles and producers allow an almost unlimited selection of
flavors to incorporate into cocktails,” he explains. “An IPA
from the East Coast is an entirely different product than a
West Coast IPA, for instance. These differences enable small
tweaks to cocktails to find the best match.”
Knowing each of your ingredients well is important to
creating balanced cocktails. “The fruity and acidic compo-
nents of Belgian ales work really well with spirits,” Big Bar’s
Rathje says. His Bitter Moonrise ($13) blends Blue Moon
Belgian White beer with Campari aperitif, Cointreau orange
liqueur and fresh lemon juice.
“Lighter lagers known for clean drinkability, like a German
Pilsner, make great substitutions for soda water in highball
PHOTO BY (RIGHT) KRISSY CLARK
cocktails,” Boyd notes. The Dusek Cooler ($10) blends
Becherovka herbal liqueur, Fee Brothers orgeat syrup, orange
blossom water, lemon juice and Moody Tongue Thalia Hall
Pilsner. Boyd adds that saison ales work well as an alternative
to sparkling wine in cocktails like the French 75, while the
grapefruit flavors of West Coast IPAs can be used wherever
you might use grapefruit juice in a drink, and any spirit that
is typically paired with coffee would work equally well with
a porter or stout.
Cardiff Giant’s Baird notes that tart ciders work well in
cocktails, as do sour beers for their similarly high acidity.
His Daring Drake cocktail ($12) blends Blackduck ¡No
Pasarán! Sidra Northern Spanish–style cider, Owney’s New
York City rum, Finger Lakes Distilling Co. Raspberry liqueur,
and lemon and lime juices, while his Soleil Colada ($12)
features Hudson Valley Brewery’s Soleil sour farmhouse beer,
Owney’s, coconut milk, simple syrup and lime juice. Brooks
of CBD Provisions also favors sour beers in his Collins-style
drinks, using Martin House Brewing Co.’s Salty Lady gose in
his GF Shandy ($12), which also features Plymouth gin,
St-Germain elderflower liqueur, grapefruit and lime juices,
and The Bitter Truth Grapefruit bitters.
Cider is a more recent addition to the U.S. craft beverage
scene, but it’s a category that’s growing rapidly, with new bars
even specializing in the apple-based beverage. The North-
man touts itself as Chicago’s first cider bar, offering nearly
100 different ciders by the can, bottle or glass, as well as five
different cider-based cocktails.
“There are so many styles of cider that the cocktail combi-
nations are really endless,” says Ambrosia Borowski, The
Northman’s front of house manager and spirit and cocktail
director. “Hopped ciders play well with aquavit and amari,
while dry ciders are great with vermouth. Cider really offers
a wide palate,” she notes. Her Transcendent Crab cocktail
S EPTEMBER 2 017 | MA R K ETWATC H MAG . C O M | MA RK E T WATCH 3
($10) features Anthem Hops
cider, Averna and Cynar 70 amari,
and Peychaud’s bitters. “Cider is
experiencing a unique revolution
here in the United States as
more bartenders realize that it’s
a quality beverage and not a
sweet, mass-produced fructose
wine,” Borowski adds.
Rathje says that when he
works with ciders, he likes to use
complementary flavors that
evoke autumn. “In addition to
the traditional apple ciders, pear
and pumpkin ciders are delicious
when done right,” he explains.
Mixing them with brandy, rye
whiskey, Cognac or Scotch can
result in some great concoc-
tions.” His Herbaceous Bliss
($13) comprises Blake’s Grizzly
Pear cider, Courvoisier Cognac,
Green Chartreuse liqueur, The Transcendent Crab (left) showcases cider’s flavor when paired with two kinds of amari. The
St-Germain, fresh lemon juice, Campsite (right) pairs hoppy IPA notes with the bitterness of Campari and Bonal Gentiane Quina.
house-made thyme-infused
simple syrup and Peychaud’s bitters. Showcase Your Skill
“I personally love working with cider year-round,” Faun’s Beer and cider cocktails are still relatively new to a lot of consum-
Nichols says. “My Mela Cattiva ($15) was a popular recent ers. “Many people haven’t experienced a really good creation yet,
winter cocktail that involved reducing Trois Pepins sparkling but I think if the industry keeps creating complex, unique beer
cider that had been opened the previous day with sugar, cinna- and cider cocktails they will become mainstays on menus, just as
mon and cloves. That reduction was mixed with Lemorton the Spritz has become a summer menu necessity,” Rathje notes.
Calvados, lemon juice and Assam black tea in the style of a Indeed, as mixologists continue to experiment and push the enve-
Hot Toddy.” During the summer, Nicols makes cider cocktail lope with beer and cider, the high-quality drinks they create will
the Shy Man ($15), featuring Farm Flor cider from Graft become more widely accepted in the craft cocktail scene.
Cidery, Aria Portland Dry gin, and honey syrup, “for a “There’s so much creativity in our industry right now,” says
beautiful garden sipper.” Andi Ryan, bar manager at Chicago hotel The Robey. “Beer

Beer- and Cider-Based Cocktail Recipes

SOLEIL COLADA TRANSCENDENT CRAB CAMPSITE
By Steven Baird By Ambrosia Borowski By Jim Kearns
Ingredients: Ingredients: Ingredients:
1½ ounces Hudson Valley Brewery Soleil 2-3 ounces Anthem Hops cider; 1½ ounces Founders’ Centennial IPA;
beer; 1 ounce Averna amaro; 1 ounce Campo de Encanto Pisco;
1½ ounces Owney’s New York City rum; ¾ ounce Cynar 70 amaro; 1 ounce Campari aperitif;
1½ ounces coconut milk; 7 dashes Peyhaud’s bitters; 1 ounce Bonal Gentiane-Quina aperitif;
¼ ounce simple syrup; Mint leaf. Cucumber slice;
¼ ounce lime juice; Cucumber ribbon.
Lime wheel. Recipe:
Combine amari and bitters in an ice- Recipe:
PHOTO BY (RIGHT) NICK VORDERMAN

Recipe:
Combine beer, rum, coconut milk, simple
syrup and lime juice in an ice-filled
cocktail shaker. Shake and allow the beer
and coconut milk to foam up. Strain into a
rocks glass and garnish with a lime wheel.
filled mixing glass and stir. Strain into an
8-ounce glass over fresh ice. Top with cider
and stir to incorporate. Garnish with a
smashed mint leaf.
Bruise cucumber slice and place in a
cocktail shaker with ice, Pisco and aperitifs.
Stir and strain into a salt-rimmed Collins
glass filled with large ice cubes. Top with
IPA and garnish with cucumber ribbon.

4 M A R K ET WATCH | MA R KE T WATC HMAG.C OM | S EPTEMBER 2 017

and cider provide us with more ways to give people a drink Brooks of CBD Provisions notes that beer and cider have
that will make them happy.” At the hotel’s rooftop bar, opened up a whole new range of possibilities for cocktail
Cabana Club, the Michelada ($7)—blending Tecate beer, innovation. “We’re tapping into another arena of cocktail
lime juice, and Cholula Original and Valentina Salsa Picante creation—basically creating another cocktail genre,” he says
Mexican hot sauces—has been a hit with customers. “Partic- “Combining beer and spirits with juices and spices or bitters
ularly when the weather is warm, people want effervescent results in a great complexity of flavors.”
cocktails that aren’t as high in At Slowly Shirley in New
alcohol content,” Ryan adds. York City, the Campsite ($16)
The Northman’s Borowski comprises Founders’ Centen-
notes that beer and cider are nial IPA, Campari, Bonal
great for adding subtle Gentiane Quina aperitif,
complexity to even the most Campo de Encanto Pisco and
standard cocktail. “Most cucumber. “Depending on the
mixers or bases of cocktails type and style of beer you use,
are still, so working with a there can be different inter-
carbonated product is inter- esting effects on the drink,”
esting—it changes the says Jim Kearns, the bar’s
texture, aromatics and how beverage director and partner,
you make the drink,” she says. and creator of the drink.
Her Sidrarita ($10) comprises “With the Campsite, the
Arette Blanco Tequila, New bitterness from the hops in
Holland Clockwork Orange the IPA is essentially canceled
liqueur and lime juice, topped out by the bitterness of the
with the spicy Blake’s El Campari. Both beer and cider
Chavo cider for a spin on the are complex, multi-layered
classic Margarita. products, and they bring those
“Now that craft cocktails complexities to cocktails,
are the norm and classic along with a very pleasant,
drinks are expected to be natural effervescence.”
made at any bar, people are Most of the cocktails at
looking to try unique cocktails Dusek’s feature beer, but in
they can’t get everywhere,” unexpected ways—the bar
Rathje says. “As the beer team uses beer to create
and cider market has grown syrups and other tinctures.
this past decade, the last few Beer and cider cocktails can work year-round. The Mela Cattiva, a “We seek to bridge and
years have been about differ- winter cocktail, blends sparkling cider, Calvados, tea and spices. contrast the many flavors
entiation, and the unique that link the beer and the
flavors that have resulted have given us more options to spirit in a cocktail,” Boyd says. Bartender Matt Miller’s Urban
create our own unique cocktails.” Prairie ($10) blends Ransom Old Tom gin, Kronan Swedish
Using beer and cider in drinks requires that the drink-maker punsch liqueur, Leopold Bros. absinthe verte, lime juice and
be very creative; unlike most spirits, there are very few go-to a gomme syrup made with 5 Rabbit Vida y Muerte beer. “We
classic beer and cider cocktails, as Ryan Gordon, owner of also like to reference classic drink builds and flavor combi-
The Queen Vic in Washington, D.C., notes. “In the United nations to provide a reference point for the guest,” Boyd adds.
States, beer and cider cocktails are a lot more rare than tradi- The Pimm’s Cup No. 18 ($10), created by bartender Danny
tional spirit-based drinks, so when we create new cocktails Astorga, blends Pimm’s No. 1 liqueur, Banhez mezcal, lime
with beer or cider, we know that they’re original,” he says. juice, Gosling’s ginger beer and a cucumber syrup made with
The bar’s Jameson Shandy ($8) blends Magners Irish cider Allagash White beer.
with Jameson Irish whiskey, Ribena blackcurrant cordial, “There’s so much versatility in working with beer and
7-Up lemon-lime soda and lemon juice, while Noel’s Seduc- cider. These producers are creating such a varied array of
tion ($8) features Guinness stout, Van Gogh Espresso vodka products that there is always something new coming out,”
and Frangelico hazelnut liqueur. Bartender Noel Quinn created Faun’s Nichols says. “As brewers and fermenters become
both concoctions. “Since beer and cider cocktails are less more adventurous, the cocktail scene will use these products
common, we have less of a frame of reference to know what with gusto. I’m very excited about what beer and cider
works and what doesn’t, so it’s a lot of fun trying out new producers are making already, and I expect it will only
combinations and learning through trial and error,” become more impressive.” mw
Gordon adds. Sally Kral is an Ithaca, New York–based freelance writer.

6 M A R K ET WATCH | MA R KE T WATC HMAG.C OM | S EPTEMBER 2 017