If you love a bloody Mary but you want a beer, might we suggest having both? Nah — you won't need to two-fist it. It's all in one drink! Try our bloody beer cocktail — a savory and slightly spicy combo of a bloody Mary and a beer. It's the perfect lower-alcohol compromise to America's favorite brunch drink.
How to Make a Bloody Beer Cocktail
Here's what's great about a bloody beer... you can customize it with the stuff you like. Add a ton of fancy garnishes, go hog wild on the horseradish, or add some hot sauce. And you can add your favorite beer into the mix, too. Our recipe is a great starting point, but where you take it is up to you. We won't even judge if you add a dash of bacon-flavored vodka. We would!
Ingredients
- Lemon wedge and bloody Mary salt seasoning for rim
- 10 ounces lager
- 2 ounces tomato juice
- ½ ounce horseradish
- ¼ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 dash Worcestershire
- 2 dashes each salt and pepper
- Celery stalk, lemon wheel, and herb sprig for garnish
Instructions
- To prepare rim, rub the rim of the pilsner or highball glass with the lemon wedge.
- With the salt on a saucer, dip either half or the entire rim of the glass in the salt to coat.
- In a prepared pilsner glass, add tomato juice, horseradish, lemon juice, Worcestershire, and seasoning.
- Stir to mix.
- Add lager.
- Garnish with celery stalk, lemon wheel, and herb sprig.
Related: Bold Boilermaker Cocktail for People Who Don't Mess Around
Bloody Beer Variations
At the end of the day, a bloody beer is a lager with tomato juice and spices. This means that there are plenty of avenues to arrive at that tasty destination.
- For a spicer take, use a bit more horseradish (or a super hot horseradish — or even wasabi), but if spice just doesn't work well with you, you can skip the horseradish altogether.
- Experiment with different lager styles, including a light lager, Mexican lager, lime lager, or even a pilsner.
- Swap the salt and pepper for Italian seasoning, or use them in combination.
- To spice things up, you can also add hot sauce. Choose whichever is your favorite, or keep it simple with a basic tabasco sauce.
Other Bloody Beer Garnishes
Like its cousin, the bloody Mary, your bloody beer garnish can be packed to the brim with garnish on garnish or just a single one.
- Instead of a bloody Mary seasoning salt rim, use tajin for a spicier flavor, or dip the rim into a salt and pepper mix. You can also skip a rim entirely.
- Pierce a few grape tomatoes onto a cocktail skewer.
- Keep the garnish light by using both lemon and lime wheels, balancing them on the rim, or stringing a few wedges together on a cocktail skewer.
- Make your garnish a bit spicy by using banana peppers or pepperoncini.
- Go with a protein garnish by adding bacon.
Whip up a batch to keep on hand in the fridge for when you need it. Then again, make it even easier on yourself to craft a bloody beer by keeping a few bottles of lager and a tasty or bold bloody Mary mix on hand for an easy two-ingredient cocktail. We're all about efficiency.
Bold Bloody Beer
We love bloody Mary's lower-alcohol cousin... it's savory and refreshing all at the same time. And we adore just how easy it is to make it exactly the way we like it, and we know you will, too.
