Today, the South Sound is a tropical paradise, a sunny destination, a place to don big sun hats and shorts and tank tops. And what’s that in your hand? Thanks to the Jimmy Buffet and the original Parrothead, fruity and tart margaritas are synonymous with sunny weather, and thankfully craft brewers are creating their own take of the beloved tequila concoction. A crossover between the beer and bartending worlds has emerged in breweries: beers inspired by the flavor profiles and recipes of cocktails. When beer is your job, you don’t necessarily want to go home and drink more beer. So, it’s no shocker that on his or her down time, brewers like a stiff cocktail — which has led to craft beers that taste like cocktails; what a vicious, delicious cycle this is. On this hot Friday in spring, we salute margaritas with an in-house beer flight we call Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Margarita Beers.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Margarita Beers
Reuben’s Gose-a-rita
4.3% ABV, can
Englishman Adam Robbings’ beer recipes killed at homebrew competitions, including winning the silver medal at the National Homebrewing Competition in 2012, and his talent, along with a Kickstarter campaign that raised close to $11,000, eventually earned him, and his wife, Grace, their own brewery — Reuben’s Brews officially opened in Seattle’s Ballard district in August 2012, which they named after their son, Reuben. Reuben’s put a citrus twist on their award-winning Reuben’s Gose — Gose-a-rita. Made with lime, lime zest, sea salt, and coriander, this fruited gose is refreshingly tart with a vibrant salinity and a bright note of lime.
Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale
4.9% ABV, can
SeaQuench Ale is a session sour mash-up of a crisp Kolsch with lots of wheat and Munich malt, a salty gose with black limes, coriander and sea salt, and a citrusy-tart Berliner weiss made with lime juice and lime peel, blended in the fermentation tank to create this German hybrid. Dogfish Head‘s experimentation focuses on three thirst-quenching styles with German roots, but no single style quite hit the mark and mood the brewery was going for — so it blended them for a cloudy gold brew with a savory and citrusy smell. It has a fair amount of tart wheat and coriander character, but the salt and lime are extremely strong. There are many goses brewed in the same vein, but not many are this dry, bright and thirst quenching.
WeldWerks Strawberry Margarita
5.1% ABV, can
In 2009, Neil Fisher began home brewing with friends in his garage. Fisher’s driveway held a lot of friends’ cars during those homebrewing days, and they all drank a lot of those homebrewed beers. Then Fisher threw down the gauntlet. He announced to his buds that if he medaled at the homebrew competition attached to the 2014 Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines festival, which was held at the time in Vail, Colorado, then he would consider opening a brewery. He won two medals. Eleven months later he poured his first beer at his WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley, Colorado. WeldWerk’s brewed their Strawberry Margarita with strawberry puree and margarita mix for a Jolly Rancher sweet and tart fruited sour.
Drekker Salt On the PRRRT
6.5% ABV, draft
In September 2014, after seven years of homebrewing, writing business plans, watching Viking movies, and dialing in their branding, scientist Mark Bjornstad, builder Darin Montplaisir, businessperson Jesse Feigum, and engineer Mason Montplaisir opened Drekker Brewing in downtown Fargo, North Dakota. Their Salt On The PRRRT is margarita slushy style sour that’s blasted with strawberry, lime, and margarita slushy mix for a flavor that’ll put you on island time in no time.
Urban Family Urban ‘Ritaville
9% ABV, draft
Sean Bowman, Timothy Czarnetzki, and David Powell founded Urban Family Public House in the heart of Old Ballard in January 2012. The partners initially served a range of styles from other breweries, but later devoted a few of their taps to house beers made on a 15-gallon system. A little over two years later, the renamed Urban Family Brewing traded Ballard for Magnolia and upgraded to a 7-barrel brewhouse. Andy Gundel started helping the company with social media and logistics soon thereafter, and in 2016 became a majority owner. In the years since, Urban Family moved back to Ballard into a 20-barrel brewhouse, a large walk-in space, an expanded taproom, and a larger outdoor area. For their fifth outing in their barrel-aged cocktail series, they grabbed their golden sour base, threw it in some tequila barrels and added both orange and lime. The result is a freakin’ margarita.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
