

> I am opening a microbrewery restaurant that will offer a full bar.
> Can anyone think of a beer based cocktail??
There are not so many cocktails with beer in it but this may not have to be
because beer would be a bad ingredient in mixed drinks. I believe it is,
instead, because either bartenders like beer too much on its own or bartenders
are not capable of making and promoting mixed drinks with beer.
If you have a bar selling many different types of beer I can only think of two
strong reasons why you would also like to sell mixed drinks with beer. Either
you want mixed drinks with beer just for the sake of having them (e.g.
cocktail as a promotional/popular/fashion thing) or you want mixed drinks
because mixing beer with something else actually makes it better.
If it is for the first reason than it doesn't really matter how you make your
mixed drink as long as it will have a cocktailish image. You could think of
substituting soda or other sparkling ingredients in many already existing
mixed drinks. Classics like fizzes, mojito, french 75 (and many other
champagne drinks) are easily remade using a proper microbrew as a substitute.
Important ingredients would be things like a flute or martini glass, cocktail
cherries or other fashionable garnishes, a cocktail shaker operated by a sexy
guy or gal and something like umbrellas or such stupid things.
If it is for the second reason than you would have to generate for yourself,
reasons why and how a beer and/or product range could be improved by mixing
beer with other ingredients. One reason could be the mixing of ingredients
increasing the differentiation in your product range. However this does not
directly increase the value of a single product.
As an owner of a microbrewery restaurant you know how to appreciate the work
done by distillers, breweries and blenders. A beer or any other ingredient
(e.g. malt whisky) is already an outstanding product. Bartenders, or
mixologists, can at some times be too little careful with the flavours they
work with. They may destroy the original intent of the composition of flavour
of the products they work with (those products may already be a careful
mixture of flavours and is more often than not destroyed or damaged). It is
not strange to see a mixed drink (e.g. a cosmo) in which the original art
(e.g. the well constructed composition of flavours in a citrus vodka) becomes
destroyed by addition of several similar flavours (e.g. citrus liqueur, plus
citrus juice, plus citrus oil).
Some people would work like: A beer has lemon notes, lets add a lemon flavour
to emphasize this feature. This would damage the original composition. For
instance, many brewers of wheat beer (which has lemon notes from coriander and
citrus peels) express that adding a slice of lemon to the beer (which is often
done in my area) is actually not the way it is intended to be because the beer
already has citrus notes and the lemon would only destroy the foam.
What I see as important in mixed drinks is the idea that mixing, if done
correctly, changes the flavour profile of some of the ingredients. I do not
believe that the main expression of intrinsic flavour (extrinsic would be
something like marketing effects) can be much improved in any another sense
than only adding a different flavour to the product range (Different but not
really better. If it would be better than it would have been bottled like
that.). However changing the flavour profile does not necessarily need to do
much damage to the original artwork of the brewer and leave the main artistic
expression of flavour intact. A flavour profile can be adjusted while still
leaving the aroma composition largely intact.
Flavour profile is what I would define as the type of combination of amount of
astringency, amount of softness and amount of flavour intensity. These three
components are popularly used in a model in which the three components create
a three dimensional space in which each component is an axis. Every product or
dish can be positioned somewhere in this space. It could also be seen as a
cube in which each component is an axis. Each corner of the cube represents a
different combination the three components. E.g. ice cream (corner A): low
astringency, high softness, low intensity. Chocolate mousse (corner B): low
astringency, high softness, high intensity. Coca Cola (corner C): high
astringency (acid), high softness (sugar), low intensity.
**************************
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***********t************** (B) *
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n i * *
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*******softness*********** (A)
http://www.google.com/search?q='flavour+profile'+klosse
It can be important to change the flavour profile of a product/ingredient as
the flavour profile interacts with our flavour perception and appreciation in
a social-psychological way. For instance: People have different needs and
associated with it are preferences for different flavour profiles. People who
like to distress and relax prefer sweeter stuff. People who like to be active
prefer a combination of high astringent and high softness.
Making a mixed drink is a way to turn the flavour profile of a certain product
into a different one. If people like whisky flavour but don't feel for a
strong intense flavour and high astringency, than it can be made sweeter with
sugar and weaker with water. As such it becomes a drink which people like
better when they need to relax, e.g. at the end of a diner. When people like
whisky but are in need to be active and to be on the dance floor. Whisky can
be combined with lemon juice and sugar in order to increase the astringency
and sweetness in order to make it a drink which is prefered by people who
have, at that time, the need to be active. In both these two examples the
whisky is still whisky. It is not altered much by ingredients like flavoured
liqueurs. I believe these are good drinks. The use of liqueurs and other
flavours, however, can still be a good thing. As long as it fits the profile.
E.g. when making a drink more soft and sweet, one could think of adding
vanilla or almond flavours.
So, when creating mixed drinks because you want to improve beer... think about
these three parameters: astringency mouth feel (sour, bitter, spicyness,
etc.), soft mouth feel (creamy, mouth coating, sugar etc.) and flavour
intensity (spices, concentrated flavours, salt-umami, etc). Also note that I
mention mouthfeel here. A flavour is more than sweet, sour, acid and bitter.
E.g. think about making a Ramoz Beer Fizz. The egg has no flavour in the
traditional sense but it does have a thickening effect and creates foam
resulting in a soft flavour.
I expressed above that an ingredients intrinsic flavour can not be much
improved by blending partly because if it would be better it would be bottled
and sold like that (an unmixed drink/ingredient should already be very good on
its own). The exception is a fresh ingredient which can not be easily bottled.
Everything which is bottled lacks the characteristic of fresh products. As
people are often trained (or genetically programmed) to like fresh products,
mixed drinks with fresh ingredients could (not will) be better. This point
of view may give another lead to the creation of good mixed drinks with beer.
Note that it is not just about adding fresh ingredients. It really should be
something which the beer is missing and which the fresh ingredient could
improve. And also the freshness should be of a quality which is to be liked
because people like that certain freshness. Not all freshness is liked (e.g.
some things need to ripen) and not all freshness is in place (would fresh
ginger improve beer better than processed ginger?).
--
"Question everything..."
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