6 Beer Cocktails for Super Bowl Sunday
Hosting a Super Bowl bash this year? Don’t leave your brews on the sideline: Treat them to box seat style by teaming up with the likes of bourbon, hot sauce, maple syrup and beef jerky for an epic game-time flavor blitz. You may never go back to bottled beer again.
Lagerita
The one ingredient that could improve the crowd-favorite Margarita? A light, crisp Mexican lager. A few ounces of beer stretch a strong Margarita with welcome fizz and won’t leave you feeling schnockered after the first quarter. Get the recipe for the Lagerita:
Salt (optional)
2 oz Cabeza Tequila
.75 oz Cointreau
1 oz Fresh lime juice
4 oz Modelo Especial Beer
Garnish: Lime wheel
Glass: Highball
If desired, coat the rim of a highball glass with salt, fill with ice and set aside. Add the tequila, Cointreau and lime juice to a shaker and fill with fresh ice. Shake, and strain into the prepared glass. Top with the beer and garnish with a lime wheel.
Michelada
This spice-licked, savory beer ’tail is almost like pouring a few spoonfuls of hot salsa into your brew—but way better. Choose a light lager that can handle some heat, then lash it with hot sauce, Worcestershire, lime juice and celery salt—plus a cayenne salt rim.
Get the recipe for the Michelada.
Beggar’s Banquet
Starring a rugged trio of bourbon, English pale ale and maple syrup, this banquet will bring a wealth of flavor to your tailgate but without any fancy glasses or fussery.
Get the recipe for the Beggar’s Banquet.
Mezcal & Mayhem
Fiery hues hint at this cocktail’s smoky mezcal base, which is teased by the bittersweet team of Campari, Belgian tripel-style beer and tart mayhaw syrup made with wild mayhaw berries harvested in the swamps of southern Georgia. If you don’t have a jar of mayhaw jelly handy (not surprising), substitute cranberry jelly spiked with lemon juice. Get the recipe for the Mezcal & Mayhem:
1.5 oz Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal
.75 oz Campari
.75 oz Mayhaw Syrup*
5 oz Vicaris Tripel-Geuze or other Belgian tripel-style beer
Garnish: Orange wheel or twist
Glass: Pint or highball
Add the mezcal, Campari and Mayhaw Syrup to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake, and strain into a pint or highball glass half-filled with fresh ice. Top with the beer and garnish with an orange wheel or twist.
*To make Mayhaw Syrup, whisk just enough hot water into mayhaw jelly to make a syrup consistency. (You may substitute raspberry preserves or cranberry jelly plus a bit of lemon juice.)
Santa Catarina Shandy
Shandies and similar beer-based mixed drinks are popular in Germany, where they are called Biermischgetränke. This particularly sunny Shandy takes a page from Brazil’s playbook with a cachaça base, but meets up with honey syrup, lemon juice and a göse-style German beer, a dry, unfiltered wheat beer that’s seasoned with coriander seeds and salt.
Get the recipe for the Santa Catarina Shandy.
Rub & Rye
Saving the burliest cocktail for last, this hefty pint and its wild ingredient list might seem like a Hail Mary. But with a strapping lineup of rye whiskey, Belgian beer, maple syrup, barbecue bitters and beef jerky garnish, it’s a guaranteed game changer.
