WELCOME TO THE CURIOUS, SOMETIMES ODD, AND NEARLY ALWAYS INTERESTING WORLD OF BEER COCKTAILS. AS YOU’LL FIND IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES, RATHER THAN BEING A MERE AFFECTATION OF MODERN MIXOLOGY, DRINKS MADE WITH BEER AS AN INGREDIENT HAVE A LONG AND STORIED HISTORY, SPANNING CENTURIES AND CONTINENTS.
My personal history with beer cocktails, on the other hand, dates back a mere couple of decades, to when I “discovered” them in the altogether unlikely milieu of Paris, France.
The time was the mid- to late 1990s, and although I was by then an established beer scribe with a trio of books under my belt, family matters brought me to French wine country on a surprisingly regular basis, usually on visits ending with a few days in the capital. Thirsting for good beer after a week or two of wine drinking, I would prowl the handful of legitimate beer bars in Paris, eventually becoming fascinated by the lists of beer cocktails uniformly available in each and every one.
In retrospect, it all made much more sense than I then afforded it. Parisians are not by nature big beer drinkers, preferring instead to linger for as long as possible over a single diminutive glass of Kronenbourg 1664 or some similarly pallid and golden lager, usually on the terrace of a fine café. So in order to stimulate interest in their wares, Parisian beer bars would spice things up with a variety of mixes, from the ubiquitous Picon Bière, the story of which is found on this page, to more inventive creations like the bière flambée, an entire 750-ml bottle of Chimay Première poured into an oversized chalice and topped with a generous, flaming floater of brandy.
My curiosity thus stimulated, I began to experiment with beer cocktails on my own, eventually establishing a small list of them in the Toronto beer cuisine restaurant and bar I helped open, beerbistro. Perhaps predictably, most were initially subject to, at best, extreme skepticism and, at worst, open derision, at least until the disbelievers allowed themselves a sip.
Time passes and minds open, however, and while it would be premature or even foolhardy to suggest that beer cocktails are today accepted without question, they are certainly less controversial and more commonly found than they were a decade or so ago. The book you now hold in your hands is testament to that fact, both in its existence and its contents.
What Jacob Grier and his merry band of collaborators have produced within the following pages puts my early and limited experimentations to shame. Following a suitably respectful look at hot and cold beer drinks of the distant and more recent past, Jake turns his considerable talents to expanding and, in some cases, redefining the lexicon of beer cocktails, a task he accomplishes with great style and taste. That his introductory notes for each drink make for such enjoyable, sometimes compelling, reading is just the proverbial icing on the cake—or in this case, I suppose, the garnish on the glass.
Beyond simply reading the recipes, of course you’re going to want to mix a few, and in that regard I suggest beginning with a relatively simple one, perhaps my own creation on this page, the Green Devil, which Jake kindly credits with inspiring his interest in beer cocktails. Once you’ve mastered such basics, try some that are a bit more involved, such as the quirky Kooey Kooey Kooey (this page), before dipping a toe into yesteryear with a vintage recipe from the first part of Chapter 1, like the wonderfully named Blow My Skull (this page).
Thus introduced to the near-infinite flavors and aromas inherent in beer cocktails, it’s my guess that it won’t be long before you begin pulling out the pilsners and porters and IPAs and experimenting with your own formulations. And with the wealth of beers available today, what a long and fruitful journey that will be!
Stephen Beaumont, coauthor of The World Atlas of Beer and The Pocket Beer Guide 2015