What’s brewing Not just beer

While drinking beer is a great way to take the sting off hot summers, adding a cocktail twist to it will liven up your day

If there was ever a season to celebrate beer — this is it! The huge popularity of beer has created a revolution across the globe and instead of being on the appendix, restaurants now highlight it in front of the menu.

If you’ve been drinking your beer straight from the bottle year after year, it’s time you get out of the rut and try something new. If you thought the satisfaction that comes with a thirsty swig of an ice-cold beer is unbeatable, think again. Beer lovers around the world have started mixing the beverage with unique ingredients, and have discovered whole new ways of savouring their favourite drink.

Beer’s pretty cool stuff if you ask me. It is uniquely versatile — it makes an amazing blended drink — plays well with other ingredients, and is the perfect thirst quencher. The carbonation in beer-based cocktails gives it a light feel making the drink best had cold, well suited for hot weather. With varieties ranging from citric, sweet to bitter, containing a modest amount of alcohol (so you can drink a lot of it), it’s simply the purest form of joy — pour, sip and swig!

A pertinent question one may raise is this: why experiment with these already delicious brews by mixing in other ingredients The answer is simple; the results of this mixing can be even more mouth-wateringly delicious. Beer cocktails are essentially a great alternative to the more common classic summer concoctions.

Some of my personal favourite blends are great thirst quenchers. One is the Sweet Pepper, a peppy drink with flavours of strawberry and grape, topped with lime wedges and black pepper. There’s also the Beer Rita, the perfect pick-me-up after a tiring day. It’s our twist to the classic Margarita.

Then, there are also the more tropical flavours. The Blue Flip is a sprightly blend of passion fruit and blue lagoon with lager that makes for a great brew. Another one of these blends is the Beer Mule, which is an invigorating concoction of ginger, cucumber and vodka. The ingredients make it perfect for the hot summer.

These recommendations act simply as starting points. A good advice for making your own brews would be to be bold, try different combinations and remember that while these beer cocktails are low on alcohol content, they do pack a punch. Since the range of styles and flavours found in beer are so diverse, the key to finding your favourite is by way of experimentation. Try mixing your favourite beer in different styles and different ingredients. While you’re busy experimenting, don’t forget to make note of what you’ve enjoyed most, to help create a great beer cocktail menu.

Rahul Singh is the founder and CEO of The Beer Café