Your favourite brew is the perfect foundation for fresh ways to sip a little summer, from slushies to spritzes, margaritas and more.
Beer slushies
Making beer slushies takes only time, a freezer and a metal baking pan.
Pour two beers into a rectangular baking pan, or a single beer into a square one, and freeze. Traditional pale ale, lager or pilsner styles work well, but avoid non-alcoholic choices. Put your serving glasses or mugs in the freezer to super-chill them, as well!
Beverage alcohol never totally freezes, because ethanol freezes at a different temperature than water (spirits are 40+ per cent ethanol, wines are 10+ per cent, beers around 5 per cent), enough to prevent them from freezing into ice.
Non-alcoholic beer is basically water with added flavour compounds that is then brewed and de-alcoholized. It will freeze solid. So it’s a lot more work to create a granita (flavoured ice): You have to rake it every few minutes or it freezes solid. I tried making non-alcoholic beer cubes, then blending them, but it was still weird. Cold dulls flavours, and non-alcoholic beers have less flavour to begin with, so they end up tasting like frozen nothing.
After an hour, shred the semi-frozen liquid with a fork, and repeat that process every 30 minutes until you have a pan of granita-style slush (it takes around three hours total). You can serve beer slushies in chilled glasses with a spoon and straw or use beer slush (or substitute a very cold pour of beer over ice) to create simple, refreshing cocktails.
For a shandy, make a half-and-half mix of beer or beer slush with sparkling lemonade or ginger ale.
A neon-bright shot of red Campari or coral Aperol makes a beer spritz.
Float your summer beer
A cold, foamy glass of Guinness satisfies at any time of year, but the new social media craze is to make mash-up beer floats/cocktails by mixing the famous Irish stout with sodas. Equal parts Guinness and cola makes a Trojan Horse, while using Monster energy drink instead of cola makes a green-and-black Gonster. For a wild non-alcoholic option, mix Guinness 0 non-alcoholic beer with a shot of blackcurrant cordial such as Ribena for a so-called Purple Guinness.
Hop-to-it water
For the mouthwatering, citrusy and lightly bitter satisfaction of a hoppy beer without the carbs or calories, sip hop water this summer. Many Canadian craft breweries make these hop-infused, carbonated waters, including Akwa Botanical Water from Spearhead Brewing in Kingston, Cascade Sparkling Hop Water from Wellington Brewery in Guelph, Quench Hop Water from Cabin Brewing in Calgary, or Road Pop bubbly hop waters from Barnside Brewing, available at Choices Markets around British Columbia
Caffeine and protein in one
If beer’s not your brew, former athletes Amar Gupta and Joshua Barr created Canadian-made Brüst for a protein boost to enhance workouts – and to perk you up. It’s a line of protein-packed cold-brew coffee drinks, including light and dark roasts and a delicious, lightly sweetened (1 gram of sugar per serving) mocha version. Each 330-millilitre carton has 20 grams of New Zealand grass-fed protein thatʼs 99 per cent lactose-free and full of omega-3 fatty acids. Find it at Costco stores nationally or brustbeverages.com.
