Black Velvet
posted on 4 June 2009 by danPity the poor, poor stout drinker. It’s the dawn of summer and the sunlight’s shining, the world’s warming. People are bouncing around, getting all public and friendly again, hey-how-ya-doin strangers, grinning like idiots. Witbiers and Summer styles are flying off the shelves. But your average stout drinker… he’s already longing for the bite of winter to justify his fridge full of dark and heavy beer. What’s this poor, poor soul to do?
There’s 3 options: retreat further in, find some dank corner in some dank basement cool enough to justify his habit (which means hanging out in basements); crank the AC up till the knob breaks off (which means bankruptcy by electric bills); or, just slurp it down regardless, cursing the sunlight (which means adopting this miserable Dickensian persona, losing friends, etc). Yea, pity the poor stout drinker.
But rejoice! I got the remedy, I got the remedy. The 4th option, stout drinkers: Black Velvet… and, no, I’m not hitting on you.
What you need:
1) One (1) bottle of stout - or, I hear, porter works well, too… Pretty much, it just needs to be black, what with the cocktail’s name) - we used a bottle of Sam Smith’s Imperial Stout (see: above pic on left), but that’s really only b/c it was the closest to where we’re sitting.
2) One (1) bottle of some sparkling wine. What kind of sparkling wine depends on personal preference, but I wouldn’t go at anything expensive, since you’re just pouring it on top of a beer. We went with Segura Viudas Cava (see: above pic on right), on the assumption that something slightly sweeter than Champagne might play nicer with a beer.
3) One (1) pint glass (that would be the pic in the middle, there).
Pop the cap, pull the cork before you even begin to think about mixing it up. The recipe we used called for a simultaneous pour, even though an online search yielded a variety of recipes, differing only in the mixing method: beer first, wine first, both at once. I’d stick with the at-once option. Once combined, any mixing would just kill of all the foam and bubbles, so best to let gravity take care of it for you. But, to each his own, though, as it goes. The only constant guideline is that you shoot for a 1:1 ration - which is just a guideline, of course, so feel free to toy with proportions. We did. We ended up with a little more wine than beer; Jeff estimates it at 3:2,, but then, Jeff once estimated he had $8 worth of change in his pockets and he only had 30 cents, so you can do with that what you will.
The resultant cocktail preserves the dark coffee and roasted flavors you’d expect in a stout, and the sparkling wine cuts through the body and lightens it up, plus adds this refreshing bite to the finish that gets you ready for the next sip. Which qualities mean perfect summer drinking w/o sacrificing any of that stout-ness. So, stout drinkers: Drink it in the sun, drink it in the park. Get grinning with all the rest of us idiot. I have your salvation, and it is good.
dJp
Tags: backporch drinkin, cocktail, stout, Summer
Category: Beer Cocktails | Comments (1)
Hey, did you know summer’s here? I’m writing this right near the end of April, on a day the temperature’s pushing 80 for the first time all year. But the summer beer’s here, so farbeit from me to argue. Plus, how can you argue with summer beers? Easier to drink than water, the lot of them.