Craft beer is an amazing thing. There are so many different styles and flavors in the world that there is bound to be a beer that you would truly enjoy. But what if you can’t find it? You can certainly purchase your own homebrew kit and brew your own, but you can also take a beer and add your own twist onto it!
Mixing beers with other beverages and ingredients has existed long ago dating back to the early 1600s, with a drink called Poppin. An early rendition of a Boilermaker (a shot of whiskey paired with a glass of beer) except the shot is already inside the beer. Adding liquor or other ingredients to beer may sound like an unconventional combination but you may have been drinking them without noticing it yourself, possibly through Soju Bombs or Sake Bombs.
There are many reasons to mix beers with other things. Such as masking the off-flavors of a bad beer, enhancing the flavors of a cocktail, or simply hasten the process of getting drunk. Adding a wedge of lemon or lime to a mask the skunkiness of a bottle of Corona is in fact a rudimentary form of a beer cocktail. You may also have tried something called a Shandy - a mix of beer and soft drinks, or even specifically a Radler, which is a half-and-half mix of Pilsner and Lemonade. Similar to a Shandy, there is also a drink called Snakebite, which is an equal part mix of beer and cider. Another good example of a beer cocktail is called Black Velvet, which is traditionally a mix of Guinness and Champagne.
Aside from mixing beer with other beverages, you can also mix up different styles of craft beers to create something entirely different. Black & Tan (or Half-and-half) is a classic example, where a stout is carefully poured on top of a pale ale or lager, creating a two-tier effect. A more common example would be a Cascadian Dark Ale, or simply a Black IPA - combining a rich, roasty, chocolatey stout with an intensely hopped IPA. Alternatively, you can also try adding a Framboise (raspberry lambic) to a dark stout at a 4:1 ratio (stout 3 : 1 framboise) to create a Raspberry Stout.
Apart from the wonderful and diversified choices of craft beer, there are also many different flavors left unexplored! Many different breweries are also testing out these mixes in-house to bring you new and surprising experiences! Try it out yourself and you might just create the next big thing!
