Menu Matching: Festive beer cocktails
Christmas evening cocktails: I have been fascinated by beer cocktails since reading beer-mixing recipes acknowledged in a book by Richard Boston, Beer and Skittles. This Christmas I hope to see pubs up and down the land publishing tentcards and blackboards with a selection from the following offerings:
- Black and Tan: stout and bitter, sometimes stout and mild
- Mother-in-Law: old and bitter
- Boilermaker: brown and mild
- M&B: Mild and bitter
- Narfer Narf: half a pint of mild and half a pint of bitter (half a pint of this is narfer narfer narf!)
- Dragon's Blood: barley wine and rum
- Dog's Nose: bitter and gin
- Lightplater: light and bitter
- Granny: old and mild
- Blacksmith: barley wine and Guinness.
Following experimental mixing sessions conducted with Manns Sweet Brown Ale, all 2.8 per cent of under-appreciated chocolatey magic, we also found that Manns - or maybe Mackeson milk stout - blends wondrously with spirits.
Manns with a shot of Tia Maria was our overall winner (think cold chocolate, coffee and cream) but other sexy winners were Cointreau or Grand Marnier (which made a grown-up version of Terry's chocolate orange) and, for those who like liquorice, Pernod.
If you're serving beer cocktails or bottled beers, bring theatre to your pub by serving in large wine glasses, champagne flutes or brandy balloons. Christmas will never be the same again.
