Beer cocktails and aged cocktails

San Diego Vodka Soda
- Photo by Alyssa Stocker-Keefe

Beer cocktails aren’t exactly new, but that doesn’t make them any less appealing. CityBeat’s beer columnist, Ian Cheesman, wrote about Alchemy’s secret beer-cocktail menu and even got a drink named after him—The Nutty Cheesman. Exciting, right? And URBN just announced that it’s jumping on the beer-cocktail bandwagon. The new menu includes Jack + Julian, a ballsy-sounding beer cocktail that mixes green chartreuse, Lairds Applejack and St. Germain with a little lemon and Julian Hard Cider.

Then there’s the aged cocktail. It’s as simple as it sounds—you mix a drink and age it in an oak barrel. Locally, not too many bartenders are doing it, but as more San Diegans are introduced to Grant Grill’s famed aged Manhattan, the demand for barrel-aged beverages will likely get the nudge it needs.

For now, Scot Blair, owner of Small Bar, Eleven, Hamilton’s tavern and Monkey Paw, is one businessman who’s at the forefront of both cocktail trends, quietly playing with beakers of beer and barrels of booze in the back of his bars.

“For me, personally, it’s always a work in progress,” Blair said. “I’m always trying to master a great cocktail…. I tried a smoked stout beer and a bacon bourbon mix once, and it was not good. But that’s the kind experimenting I want to do or see someone else doing.”

Both on- and off-menu at Small Bar and Monkey Paw, you can explore the bounties of Blair’s beer-cocktail and aged-cocktail experimentations. He recently collaborated with Levi Walker and Timothy Stevens of Prohibition and came up with two aged cocktails worth a try. There’s the very-good Valhalla—Laphroaig Islay malt whisky and cointreau mixed with barrel-aged bitters and pine liqueur, then served with an orange peel—and the even-better Knox, a dark and delicious aged mix of bourbon and rye whiskeys, Campari, fernet and CioCIaro Amaro and served with a Luxardo Maraschino cherry. 

Small Bar has aged-gin drinks, too, like the Hemingway, and offers its own version of the aged Manhattan. And at Monkey Paw, you’ll find several creative beer cocktails. Try the San Diego Vodka Soda (hop vodka, lime and Anchor Steam beer) and let your taste buds decide if the trend will stick around.