Recipe
Summer Beer
Print or online media may reprint this excerpt with the following attribution: “Excerpted from Good Spirits, by A.J. Rathbun, © 2007, and used by permission of The Harvard Common Press.”
Summer Beer
I originally quaffed this at the Rock-a-Belly Bar and Deli. The ’Belly also had a back brick deck, which got to about 110˚F in summer. As easily imagined, the ultra-refreshing Summer Beer was essential to deck survival.
Ice cubes
9 ounces fresh lemonade
one 12-ounce bottle beer (go with a nice American brew in this one)
1 1/2 ounces vodka
Lemon slice for garnish
1. Add a good-sized handful of ice cubes to a 24-ounce “big girl” beer glass. Make sure you’ve washed your hands first. Add 8 ounces of the lemonade to the glass.
2. Slowly, carefully, achingly, add the bottle of beer to the glass.
3. If you added the beer too quickly, wipe off the counter.
4. Once the beer has settled a bit, add the vodka. Then top it off with the remaining ounce of lemonade. Stir once, with a mighty long spoon. Squeeze the lemon slice over the top, and drop it in.
A Warning: I feel compelled to mention that after the second round of Summer Beers, you should be prepared for renditions of “summer” songs, but with “Summer Beer” inserted. For example, “the summer wind, came floating in” from Frank Sinatra’s beloved “Summer Wind” becomes “the summer beer, came floating in” And Seals and Crofts’s “Summer Breeze” changes to “summer beer, makes me feel fine.”
