Welcome to our summer drinks guide. We’ve pored over hundreds of recipes to select the best cocktails of the 2015 season. The recipes are broken down by category: vodka, gin, rum, tequila, whiskey, and beer.
We hope you enjoy our selections and get a few ideas for your summer drinks program.
These are the best beer cocktails:
Paul Revere
1 ½ oz. Kimo Sabe Joven mezcal
½ oz. Ruby red grapefruit juice
½ oz. Fresh lime juice
½ oz. Simple syrup
1 oz. Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin or your favorite IPA
Shake all ingredients together except IPA; pour over ice in a mug and top with Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin.
Mixologists Jeremy LeBlanc & Kate Owca created this recipe for La Puerta in San Diego.
Farmhouse Shandy
Farmhouse Shandy
2 oz. Art in the Age Snap ginger liqueur
4 oz. Lemonade
4 oz. Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale
Squeeze of lime
Basil garnish
Mix liqueur, lemonade and beer in a tall glass over ice. Add a squeeze of lime, and garnish with a sprig of basil.
The mixologists at Art in the Age Craft Spirits created this recipe.
Scratch Golfer
1 oz. Shellback spiced rum
1 oz. Aperol
1 oz. Carpano Antica Formula vermouth
Top with Allagash White beer
Build ingredients in order over ice. Garnish with half of an orange wheel.
Steve Fette of Fiddler’s Elbow Country ClubBedminster, NJ, created this recipe.
The Don’s Summer Shandy
The Don’s Summer Shandy
1 ¼ oz. Tequila Don Julio Blanco
1 ½ oz. Red Stripe lager
¹⁄3 oz. Fresh lemon juice
¹⁄3 oz. Thyme-infused simple syrup
Thyme sprig for garnish
Combine tequila, fresh lemon juice and thyme syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well and strain contents over ice into a highball glass. Top with Red Stripe and garnish with a thyme sprig.
Mixologist Ben Scorah created this recipe.
Ginger-Pineapple Beermosa
¾ oz. Lemonhart 151 rum
¼ oz. Pineapple syrup
¼ oz. Ginger syrup
½ oz. Lime juice
3 oz. Praga dark lager beer
Build in a tall Collins glass.
Greg Butera of Dusek’s in Chicago created this recipe.
Mad Monkey
2 oz. Orange juice
2 oz. Pineapple juice
¾ oz. Coconut syrup
Light beer (such as PBR or Heffeweizen)
Rim pint glass with honey and dip in toasted coconut. Pour about ¾ of a glass of light beer. Add shaken ingredients on top—pour slowly.
The mixologists at Park Café Group in San Francisco created this recipe.
The Hopster
Ginger-Pineapple Beermosa
1 ½ oz. 100% Agave tequila
½ oz. Fresh lime juice
½ oz. Simple syrup
2 dashes Cardamom bitters
Grapefruit beer
Combine all ingredients (except beer) in a mixing glass with ice, shake vigorously and strain simultaneously with beer over fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wheel and salted rim.
Mixologist Dan Marohnic created this recipe for Park on Fremont in Las Vegas.
Spicy Cerveza Cocktail
1 ½ parts Hornitos Plata tequila
¹⁄3 part Lime juice
¹⁄3 part Simple syrup
1 slice Jalapeño
4 parts Mexican lager
Muddle jalapeño in a glass with a salted rim, combine remainder of ingredients except lager in a shaker. Shake vigorously, strain over fresh ice and add lager.
The mixologists at Hornitos created this recipe.
