10 Beer Cocktails to Try This Summer

From the Craft Beer Margarita to the Beer Sangria -- ten recipes to transform your summer entertaining.

Beer cocktails are undergoing a quiet revolution. The old shandy and the workmanlike radler were just the beginning. As craft beer culture has expanded to include wheat beers, sours, session IPAs, and imperial stouts, mixologists have discovered that beer can play the role of texture, carbonation, bitterness, and complexity in cocktails that no spirit alone can provide. The key is to match the character of the beer to the role it is being asked to play: a sharp, bitter IPA in a cocktail designed around bitter notes, a light lager in a refreshing long drink, a stout in something warming and rich.

Our Beer Sangria is the most crowd-pleasing summer recipe in this collection. The wheat beer provides the same freshness as sparkling water in a traditional wine sangria, but adds a gentle yeast complexity and soft carbonation that makes the fruit sing. The ratio of beer to spirit matters: 60% beer, 15% spirit, 25% juice is the baseline. From there, the fruit you choose tells the story of the season -- stone fruits in July, figs in September, citrus through the winter months. Always add the beer cold and last, and always serve immediately to preserve the effervescence.

For the more adventurous, the Craft Beer Margarita deserves your attention. The bitterness of a pale ale or session IPA echoes the vegetal bite of a reposado tequila, and the citrus notes in both harmonise beautifully. The technique is simple: shake tequila, fresh lime, and agave syrup over ice, strain into a salted glass, then top with cold lager. The result is longer, more interesting, and frankly more sessionable than a straight margarita. These recipes appear in our Boissons category with step-by-step instructions for each.