I had a few minutes of free time today. That’s a lot, considering I’m currently working from home while watching my daughter. I pondered today’s post, and decided I wanted to do an experiment of sorts. I asked the rest of Team CBW for advice: what to write about? Robert suggested shandies, as Hydraulic Hearth specializes in them. That gave me an idea: not shandies, but beer cocktails.

Submitted for your approval: two such drinks.

Sam Collins

I asked Drew for beer cocktail recipes and he immediately said “Tom Collins but with IPA”. I wasn’t sure which IPA to use, nor which gin, until I realized: I had Dogfish Head gin from my trip to Maryland, and I could easily pick up some 60 Minute.

So: a Sam Collins, named after DFH’s founder Sam Calagione.

• Juice of two lemons, with two slices reserved as garnish
• 1T powdered sugar (Ethan and Robert, via Slack, would like you to know that you should always use simple syrup instead of powdered sugar)
• 3oz gin
• 12oz IPA
• Ice

Fill two glasses halfway with ice. Place everything but the beer into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake it like a Polaroid picture. Strain into the two glasses and top with IPA.

Pair with: having to explain to your kids that no, you didn’t make lemonade, you only bought two lemons and put gin in all of the juice already; juicing oranges so they stop trying to drink your cocktail.

Anchor and Crossbones

I wanted to balance the light, refreshing Collins with something more hearty. So: I took the Squirrel & Crossbones recipe from the Black Squirrel website and swapped the cider for Anchor Steam.

I was a little worried about this one, but after one sip I’m here to tell you: this drink is goddamn amazing. I kind of don’t want to ever drink anything else. It’s bready and toasty and a little sweet but not too much and just… damn.

2 oz Black Squirrel maple spirit 4 oz Anchor Steam

Pair with: A 15 kill streak in Overwatch as Zarya only for the play of the game to still go to Bastion, god damn it.