Oh no you didn’t do that to beer!

The idea of beer cocktails was thrown around on a recent podcast I was a part of. I had a root beer stout from Garfield Brewery which we added a scoop of ice cream to to make a beer root beer float. I had gotten the idea from my friend Brandon Fry at Cedar Creek who adds a scoop of ice cream to his Darkest Achievement every December 21st. This is merely a variation of an island drink known as stout punch which we also re-create it on the podcast. It generally included Stout, cream rum, and egg. We re-created it using Coronado vanilla liqueur from Mexico which basically had everything but the Stout already in it.

Beer cocktails have long been seen in the form of Shandy’s in England where lemonade or lime soda is added to light beer. I’ve also written recently about the syrups they use in Berlin to add to their Weisse in order to sweeten it up. I made the argument that the beer slushy‘s are merely following suit americana. I’ve seen a lot of debate online recently about whether or not the slushy‘s are beer. I have already written extensively about it and I think they can be beer cocktails if you want them to be. Whatever they are, they are extremely popular!

Nothing seems sacred in this day and age where seltzers are rapidly becoming popular with beer drinkers, so it’s no surprise when the breweries come up with soda pop IPAs. I had come across them at Devils Trumpet back in January, and was really impressed with them until I tried one that was sickeningly sweet on last Thursday at the Tomlinson Taproom! But then I came across one called Rainbow Pop from Guardian that I found very satisfying. We were doing a podcast on fruited IPA’s, and I thought it would fit the subject!

What I wasn’t prepared for, was the arrival of Fruit Loops which would be added to the beers. I was questioning at first the introduction of Founder’s Moon Rambler when it was not a fruited IPA, but was enlightened when I was told that since it had milk sugar in it, it would pair up well with Fruit Loops added to it! I wasn’t sure what it was going to taste like, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! This was actually quite delicious, but you wouldn’t have convinced me if I hadn’t tried it!

If I’ve lost anybody at this point, I understand. I wasn’t prepared to go to Funkytown myself. And then when the rest of the fruited IPAs were introduced, the second pour of each of them was done with Fruit Loops! And it’s probably no surprise that these beers which were already fruit forward had no problem pairing with the cereal. I never would’ve guessed this was going to be an experience worth writing about, but it was amazing. I really enjoyed the way the fruit felt on my palate laced with beer. It’s just like grown-up cereal. When I told a few of my friends about our experience on the podcast, some of them were not surprised at all. Maybe it’s because they know us and our antics, But today’s craft beer drinking population seems to be willing to try a lot of new things, no matter how weird they may seem at first!

Some of the other beers we put the Fruit Loops in on the podcast!

So I think I already told you about the soda pop IPA I was bringing to the adventure. Yes, we added the cereal to it as well. And I thought it was an even better pairing. But some of us were crazy enough to have put cereal in soda back in our younger days, so it’s kind of like craft beers is here to let us relive our stupidity. Only now it doesn’t seem so stupid! Don’t tell the kids about this, and I can’t stress that enough! This is delicious, and I’m not going to lie and say I won’t try it again!

So what’s next? I decided I wanted to put pineapple chunks in an IPA, and it worked as well! Now you can make IPA sangria and I’m here to tell you that it is never a bad idea! I don’t suppose there is a single fruit you can’t add to an IPA for an extended experience. If you’re going to fruit IPA’s in the brewing process, there should never be a rule about doing it afterwards. But don’t take my word for it. I am telling you you got to try this!

So while we’re on the subject, I also feel that the heavily Fruited Sours from the multitude of breweries that make them are screaming to be used for sangria. The options are endless, and while I didn’t have time to try it right here for this article, I encourage my readers to experiment. I will be at a brewery tomorrow that makes this style, and I will mention it to them. The forward fruit flavors in everything from the Pie-Face, Spin to Win, and slushy’s would create a great experience if you tossed a bunch of fresh fruit into the glass. This is uncharted waters were speaking of, but I kind of imagine it’s already in the works!

So I found the beer cocktails that I explored in this episode to be actually much better than I expected. I had an open mind in the interest of learning about the way beer can be enjoyed, and was really surprised how well all of this worked. When my nephew and I were enjoying the Lucky Charms, I had no idea how my weekend would end. I encourage you to check out A Gateway to Lesser Things in a few weeks when the episode about fruit IPAs is released. Then again check out everything we’ve done so far!

If you only want to drink your beer straight up, I am perfectly happy to toast you. Nobody needs to mess with beer for it to be good. But sometimes people want to have a little fun, and I hope this article can steer people at crazy parties in the right direction. Most people have cereal in their pantry, as well as fruit. The options are endless, and beers is here for you to play with, but only if you want to!