Ask most beer nerds what they think of beer cocktails and, more often than not, you'll get told it's a waste of good beer.
There's definitely an argument that we should drink the beers as the brewer intended, but strangely enough the people we know most likely to blend or add spirits to their beers are the brewers themselves. When we visited Chorlton the head brewer insisted we try his latest berlinerweiss with a shot of Chartreuse, and Cloudwater even released two DIPAs side by side that drinkers were supposed to blend.
So if the brewers are OK with it, so are we. Cocktails are another step along the line, so our rule is that is still has to rely on the character of the beer. You have to know exactly what style of beer went into it just by tasting. And often the results are stunning. By far and away our favourite has been this delicious gingerbread & stout cocktail that the Craft Beer Channel put together with the London Bar Consultants at their cocktail bar, Merchants House. This wicked winter warmer can be served hot or cold, and has lots of sweet, aromatic spices as well as the lovely Dirty Stop Out, a sweet smoked stout from award-winning Welsh brewery, Tiny Rebel.
Sadl Dirty Stop Out isn't as common as it once was, but any stout with plenty of sweetness but also plenty of roastiness will work really well.
