IPA Cocktail with Rum & Ginger Beer (aka Stormy IPA)

This IPA cocktail is essentially a shandy spiked with rum. A strong, spicy, gingery and overtly hoppy shandy mind you. If you like IPAs and the taste of fresh brewed ginger beer, you could easily fall in love with the libation.

We mixed it for our friend Leslie's blog, From Play Dates to Parties. She and her husband love entertaining, good food and cocktails and craft beer makes frequent appearances in their home - in recipes too. Like these Molasses & Stout Cookies with stout infused icing she made for our readers not long ago.

Because this particular IPA cocktail is inspired by the classic combo of ginger beer and rum known as Dark 'n' Stormy, we thought we could call it Stormy IPA. What do you think?

Even though we mostly drink our IPAs (as you well know there can be sooo much going on in one, aromas and flavor wise), we enjoy mixing the occasional IPA cocktail.

In our view a carefully selected IPA can brighten up many of a classic cocktail. Remember the recipes for Session IPA Beergarita and IPA Piña Colada we posted? Or my personal favorite poolside frozen drink, the IPA Mango Slushie? All of them let the most popular craft beer style in America take center stage and taste incredible.

While we love to indulge in a refreshing IPA grapefruit shandy during summer, the holidays are traditionally the season for ginger beer and its alluring spicy bite. This IPA cocktail combines that bite with the hoppy pungency of your favorite IPA. We actually went with a well balanced, slightly dank one (Odell IPA), but feel free to choose a more piney one or go low key with a dry hopped and citrusy variety.

All you need to do is add your IPA to the ginger beer, shake your dark rum with a bit of freshly squeezed lime juice and mix them all together.

You can find the full recipe here. Cheers, friends!

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