Mixing beer and liquor has a long and tasty American history
I’m sure you have heard the saying “liquor before beer you’re in the clear, beer before liquor and you’ve never been sicker.” Maybe it’s the unspoken law you drink by, but have you ever considered how beer cocktails throws this belief system out the window?
It is unknown how this rhyme came to be, but it is likely linked to how beer is digested. The carbonation of the beer irritates the lining of the stomach, thus increasing the rate of alcohol absorption. So starting with beer and then switching to liquor may seem to lead to intoxication more quickly.
However, what really matters is not the type of alcohol, but rather the rate it is consumed and whether it is combined with food or not. People don’t tend to drink a lot of beer after they’ve started with liquor, rather people start with beer then cross to liquor as the night goes on. And when they become sick they assume it was the liquor that made them sick, not the quantity of alcohol consumed.
Tasty beer cocktails also help dissolve this myth as they most often have liquor mixed with beer. The combination is popular among drinkers today, but it is believed to have surfaced in America as early as the 1920’s during Prohibition. Beer has been mixed with other ingredients long before making its way to our shores, possibly hundreds of years.
Making beer hasn’t always been a clean or pure process like it is today, so people would often mix other items to help offset the bitter taste with items like honey, rosemary, grapes, or even poppy seeds.
Why mix beer and cocktails? Some people like the combinations because beer gives cocktails a bit of fizz, without watering down the drink. The yeastiness of the beer also balances and mellows any excessive sweetness in the cocktail.
Some ingredients that are mixed with beer today to spice it up include Irish cream, sparkling wine, champagne, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, sake, eggs, lemonade, orange juice, hot sauce, and even salt & pepper. Some of these sound terribly nasty and I don’t suggest trying those combinations, but more popular beer cocktails you could try are Irish car bombs, black velvet, bull’s eye, and a beer sangria.
Maybe you have been in a restaurant and walked by a table that had an upside down Corona in the margarita, this is known as a beerita or a Coronarita. The bartender will slightly turn the margarita and beer horizontal and place it inside the drink. This creates a suction making sure that all the beer doesn’t come out at once, but as the drink empties, more beer pours into the glass.
If you aren’t a margarita drinker, you may actually like this drink as the beer cuts down on some of the sweet and sour taste of the cocktail, and the flavor actually changes as you get closer to the bottom.
So the next time you’re tailgating or watching the game at home, before you pop that beer open, consider shaking things up and whipping up a beer cocktail!
The Coronarita
- 1 ¼ ounces tequila
- ½ ounce triple sec
- 3 ounces margarita mix
- 1 Coronita 7 ounce beer
- 1 lime wedge
Salt the rim of a margarita glass. Combine tequila, triple sec, and margarita mix in a cocktail shaker filled partway with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a glass filled halfway with ice. Invert the Corona and garnish with a lime wedge.