Stir and Strain

This post was made in partnership with The House of Angostura. Recipe and ideas are my own.

My calendar of nonsense drink holidays tells me that tomorrow April 7th is National Beer Day! So what are we going to do here? Make a beer cocktail of course!

Beer can be a pretty versatile ingredient in cocktails (you can even substitute it for an egg white in a sour!) but sometimes you want to play up the beer part more and not break out the hard liquor. Today we’ve teamed up with Angostura to show how their bitters can make a bold new spin on one of those classic drinks a lot of people think of when they hear “beer cocktail”: the Michelada.

A Michelada can vary greatly depending on who’s making it, but mainly it consists of beer, lime juice, hot sauce, spices… lots of delicious bits. I decided to take that spicy base and mash it up with the idea of Sangrita (no, I spelled that right, it’s not sangria), the side shot that accompanies tequila and translates to “little blood”. Sangrita is usually, but not always, a tomato based drink. Here, instead of a tomato base, we’re using a good dose of Angostura. Sound crazy? Crazy delicious!

Beer cocktails are warm weather cocktails in my opinion, and this weekend it’s getting a little toasty around SoCal so I thought now is a good time to crack open a beer and mix up one of these. It’s another great way to use Angostura bitters in a drink other than adding an accent to a cocktail.

Have you guys made a drink that uses a lot of bitters? Let me know! And if you try this, tag us and let us see! Cheers!

For the Sangrita:

2 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
2 ounces freshly squeezed orange juice
4 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1-1/2 ounces Angostura Bitters
1-2 dashes hot sauce (more or less to taste)
Pinch salt

For the Cocktail:

4 ounces beer
4 ounces Sangrita
Garnish: lime juice and spicy salt mix (equal parts salt, chili powder and black pepper)

In an airtight non-reactive container, pour in lime juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice, Angostura, hot sauce and the pinch of salt. Stir together and set aside until ready to use or refrigerate up to a week.

Rim a double rocks glass with lime juice and spicy salt mix. Add ice. Add sangrita mix to the glass and pour in beer. Stir gently to combine.

If you’d like to learn more about Angostura and their products, please visit them at www.angostura.com