What’s shakin, cocktail fans?
In today’s episode, we explore the intersection of two beautiful beverages – beer and cocktails. Although beer and cocktails are very separate and distinct beverage categories today, there were various points in world history and in the history of the United States where the line between these two types of drinks was much blurrier.
We were able to get ahold of cocktail author and beverage consultant Jon Yeager, who, along with his wife Lindsay, runs a company called PourTaste in Nashville.
Jon and Lindsay are preparing to release a really cool book called The Ultimate Guide to Beer Cocktails, published by Skyhorse Publishing. And so it’s great timing for us to talk about the weird and wonderful world of beer-driven cocktails.
Some of the other topics we discuss during this interview include:
Here’s a link to the Amazon pre-order page for The Ulitmate Guide to Beer Cocktails. So please head on over there and reserve your copy today!
This week’s featured beer cocktail is the Dog’s Nose, which is about as classic a beer cocktail as you’ll ever come across. To make it, you’ll need:
And what you want to do is get a heat-resistant glass, warm up that ale (either stovetop or in the microwave) to the point where it’s steaming, but not bubbling or boiling. And then add the gin and the sugar. The heat is going to allow the sugar to dissolve as you stir, and then just shake or grate that nutmeg right on top of the drink before you serve.
To me, the Dog’s nose is a great example of several classic beertail “moves” that Jon and I discuss. Heating the beer is one of those moves that was very common back in the day, and adding spice to the equation is another classic beertail hallmark.
Okay, so we threw a lot of funny looking drink names and definitions at you this episode. Here’s a breakdown that should help you keep them straight.
This is beer (or wine in the case of the “Purl Royale”) infused with wormwood, and possibly other herbs and spices. Often served warm.
The predecessor to purl is a beer antecedent called gruit, which is beer that was bittered with roots and spices, rather than hops.
Wassial is like a beer punch. Basically, you take some nice dark ale, heat it up, and add mulling spices like cinnamon, cloves, and star anise. Occasionally, biscuits would even be floated on top of the hot liquid.
This beverage was often served during the Christmas holidays to groups of people who went “wassailing” (what we would call caroling) door-to-door.
A possett consists of dark beer whipped into egg and cream, seasoned with citrus and/or spice.
Made with Mexican beer, lime juice, spice, and maybe some worcestershire sauce and/or veg, the Michelada is like a Mexican lager ran into a Bloody Mary.
The Vieux Carre
Brandy, because it’s my favorite spirit category of all time.
I’d have Jesus turn some water into some fine sherry.
Be comfortable with the classics, and make sure that you’re getting classics from the right places when you go out to the bar. Wrap your head around those things first, and then branch out.
Featured Cocktail Background Music
Backbay Lounge Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Wassail Photo
Photo by Jeremy Tarling, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 2.0 License (Share Alike) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
