Home Speakeasy

After a surprisingly high number of suggestions to do so, we decided to try our hand at some beer cocktails. Being fall (and considering it was already in our fridge), we started with a pumpkin beer that neither of us had ever tried: Stegmaier Pumpkin Ale.

I was a little surprised by the results, specifically how much I liked them. I had always been under the impression that beer cocktails were meant to be a ton of beer with a few additions, and the idea of adding it in small doses like any other ingredient really changed the whole thing for me (thanks @BigsyNY).

Lot 49 (above)
1.5 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon
1 oz Laird’s Applejack
1 oz Vanilla Pumpkin Syrup
5 drops Cinnamon Tincture
3 oz Stegmaier Pumpkin Ale

Shake the non-beer ingredients well with cracked ice. Pour into a rocks glass, add cold beer and stir. Rim glass and garnish with an orange wheel.

NOTES: Really damn tasty. Just a whole bunch of fall flavors that balanced pretty well. I would probably like to do this again with plain pumpkin syrup (sans vanilla), but it wasn’t TOO distracting. I also think I’d like to swap out the Applejack for some proper Calvados. Really smooth, and kind of dangerous. There’s a LOT of alcohol in here, and it really doesn’t taste like it.

Two more recipes after the jump!

The Crossing
2 oz Cazadores Blanco Tequila
0.5 Oz Luxardo Amaro Abano
1 oz Orange Juice
3 dashes Aztec Chocolate Bitters
3 oz Stegmaier Pumpkin Ale

Shake the non-beer ingredients well with cracked ice. Pour into a rocks glass, add cold beer and stir. Garnish with cinnamon and candied ginger.

NOTES: Also delicious. Definitely not for someone that doesn’t enjoy the taste of tequila, but it was nicely rounded. All the flavors were still really obvious, but all the hard alcohol bite was gone. This particular beer isn’t very pumpkin-y, but it didn’t seem to bother me. Also, this garnish has been one of my favorites. It smells fantastic.

Breakfast of Champions
2 oz Rhum Barbancourt
1 oz Vanilla Pumpkin Syrup
2 dashes Whiskey Barrel Bitters
Top with Stegmaier Pumpkin Ale

Shake the non-beer ingredients well with cracked ice. Pour into a rocks glass, add cold beer and stir.

NOTES: Jen went back to basics with hers and it really worked out strangely well. Like I said, the beer wasn’t very pumpkin-y, and somehow this just made the whole thing taste like a much more flavorful pumpkin beer. Really refreshing and again, dangerous. If no one told me, I would be hard-pressed to identify Rhum Agricole as an ingredient in this, it just meshed that well.

So that’s it! Long post, but we (as you can see) really got into this idea. Thoughts? Leave them in the comments.