When the temperature plummets, few things warm the soul better than a hearty cocktail. This winter, once the last of the changing leaves has hit the ground and the snow beckons over the Rockies, look past hot chocolate and hot toddies in favor of something different — a mulled beer.
Mulling beer dates back to when beer wasn’t served ice cold — an era when “frost-brewed” meant that the beer had been negligently left outdoors during a snowstorm, not a marketing pitch paired with bikinis.
The practice of warming and spicing a brewed beverage could be found on both sides of the Atlantic, with a typical recipe consisting of an herbal infusion combined with sugar and, sometimes, beaten eggs or a light cream.
The concept is on the cusp of a revival among the trendiest bars in America, but a typical recipe calls for only a handful of ingredients — most of which are certainly in your kitchen.
Today, the big variable is the type of beer you choose as a starting point. If there’s one thing we’re good at doing here in Colorado, it’s brewing phenomenal beer. Start with something light and you’ll wind up with a fuller-bodied mulled beer. Use a milk stout or an Imperial ale and you’ll wind up with a rich beverage ready to be sipped after a long day on the slopes – or even just a grueling stay at the office.
Start with a simple ale and all you need to do is heat up the beer in a saucepan for a few minutes while mixing in sugar and spices like cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. This allows for a high degree of customization.
Conversely, you may want to turn things up a wick. As always, experimenting is highly encouraged.
Starting with spice: Dry Dock Imperial Pumpkin
Stay hyper-local with Aurora’s Dry Dock Brewing Company. The brewery’s terrific Imperial Pumpkin Ale is heavily spiced with Saigon and Indonesian cinnamons, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, mace and cloves, meaning it won’t require much of a trip to your spice cabinet to make into a terrific mulled cocktail.
We recommend adding a tablespoon of raw local honey or agave nectar, as well as a couple of slices of fresh ginger. Combine 12 ounces of beer and ginger into a medium saucepan. Warm over low heat for about half an hour just below a simmer. After 30 minutes, add the honey or agave and then strain into a heavy glass or mug. A splash of Denver’s Stranahan’s bourbon and a sprinkle of cinnamon cosset your taste buds like never before.
Adding in the spice: Oskar Blues Mama’s Little Yella Pils
This time, we’ll start with a rich but still reasonably delicate pilsner from Oskar Blues in Longmont and Lyons.
Pour a can into a saucepan and mix in a pinch of ground ginger, a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch or two of cinnamon, 3 cloves and a tablespoon of raw local honey. Heat the saucepan for about 15 minutes, but don’t let the concoction boil.
While the beer and spices are warming up, crack an egg and separate the egg white from the yolk — you’ll only want to be left with the yolk. Combine two teaspoons of sugar with the yolk and aggressively beat the two with a whisk until it is nearly white.
Slowly add the yolk mixture into the warm beer/spice mix. Gently stir for about five minutes and then add in a little more honey as desired.
Finally, strain the newly-mulled beer into a mug and enjoy!