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Brewing Co. and Peak Spirits. With ten talented bartenders competing for top beer cocktail, the libations were creative with blending, textures, even garnishes (from sour candy to BBQ Pork Belly on a skewer). TAPPING THE TREND Ezra Johnson-Greenough, founder of Brewing Up Cocktails, a consulting fi rm based in Portland, OR, began experimenting with beer mixology in 2010 after visiting San Francisco for its annual Beer Week celebration. Th e Alembic fi rst started serving a daily beer cocktail in 2009, "and the taste really motivated me to blend beer and spirits," recalls Johnson-Greenough. "My partner in Brewing Up Cocktails, Jacob Grier, is a bartender and knowledgeable in spirits, so we began collaborating." In turn, Grier found inspiration at a Tales of the Cocktail seminar on beer mixology led by Canadian beer expert, Stephen Beaumont, back in 2008. Last year, the Brewing Up Cocktails crew put on seven diff erent events across the West Coast including one in Vancouver, B.C. In July 2011, with the help of sponsors Kona Brewing and Groupon, the partners presented the eighth installment with a summer Tiki Party theme at the original Brewing Up Cocktails' location, Yetta Vorobik's Th e Hop & Vine Bar and Beer Garden in Portland. Virtually any beer style can be used in a beer cocktail. Johnson-Greenough says, "When I fi rst started, I began with obvious matches," such as Belgian lambics and fruity liqueurs and rich malty beers such as stouts with brown spirits. "But once you understand a beer's fl avors and how they play off spirits and bitters, you can mix the citrus, pine, fruit and bitter aspects of those beers with similar infusions and spirits." Beer also off ers a textural contrast unlike other mixers. Cask ales or nitro beers such as Left Hand Brewing's Nitro Milk Stout can add a soft creamy texture. More carbonated beers such as Anchor Steam, off er crisp bubbles and snowy foam for garnish. BEER AS A DELICIOUS, SURPRISINGLY DELICATE INGREDIENT How the beer is handled can make all the diff erence. "Being a beer person, I don't serve beer over ice," says Johnson- Greenough, "but cocktails usually have ice or are shaken with ice which changes the fl avor of the beer quite a bit so you need to understand that and when to shake, when to stir, when to serve over ice, etc. As far as beer-based ingredients, one of the fi rst things I tried was using straight hop oil extract, which is incredibly potent and quite nice. Just a drop of hop oil is more than enough for a cocktail. We found just putting a single drop on the top of a Martini, or on the rim, adds a fantastic hop bouquet aroma and fl avor." Hop oils are available from homebrew supply shops, and by mail order from several vendors, such as Hopsteiner.com. Stored in aluminum or glass bottles, hop oils stay fresh for one year post production. Reducing beers down to syrups is another option for mixologists, but heating the beer can sometimes makes it www.cheersonline.com very bitter. Gentle reduction, using a slow cooker or very low heat, will best concentrate the beer without scorching its hops. Some operators use the reduction to amplify the fl avors of a complementary liqueur, such as syrup made with cherry lambic beer, blended with kirschwasser or almond orgeat. In Milwaukee, Burnhearts bartender Katie Rose makes "Th e Fall of Nero," a reduction of Goose Island's Pepe Nero, a dark saison ale brewed with black peppercorns, adds maple syrup and muddled fresh thyme, spiked with Calvados to match the beer's spicy fi nish, priced at $6.50 for six ounces. Burnhearts, a cozy corner bar with 16 beer lines and almost 100 brands in bottles, off ers low-key retro games (shuffl eboard anyone?), with 80 seats, and an expanding seasonal list of beer cocktails, priced from $5 to $11. At the 269-room, twelve-story Ace Hotel in N.Y., April Bloomfi eld's pub, Th e Breslin, off ers interpretations of classic beer cocktails. Th e Breslin's version of the Michelada is dubbed 'Bitches Brew' after the Miles Davis classic—as well as original creations such as the Beggars Banquet, a blend of Maker's Mark Bourbon, lemon juice and maple syrup, fi nished with Old Speckled Hen Ale from Greene King/MoorlandBrewery in the U.K. Priced at $13 each and served in the 50-seat bar, Tthe Cascading Hophead was served at the Dionicess event during San Diego's Beer Week in November 2011. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 | 33 JESSICA Y KAMINSKI