“First ever” beer cocktail comp

By Sacha Delfosse

Melbourne bar Black Pearl has teamed up with local breweries and spirit brands to host a beer cocktail workshop and competition on May 15 in Melbourne as part of Good Beer Week.

Sponsoring the workshop and cocktail competition are Stone & Wood, 2 Brothers, 4 Pines, Red Hill and Bridge Road breweries, as well as 666 Pure Tasmanian Vodka, The West Winds Gin and Tromba Tequila.

The workshop costs $15 and is aimed at consumers who will be shown how to make a range of classic beer cocktails by the Black Pearl crew, as well as being presented with product information from relevant sponsor brands’ representatives.

“We’ll take them through cocktails ranging from something that uses a nice clean lager or a pilsner right down to the other end of the scale, doing old school style 'flips' and original creations that we’ve done using stouts,” Black Pearl bar manager, Chris Hysted, said.

“We want to show the versatility of lighter beers all the way through to darker beers and show how they are being used in cocktails at the moment.”

Consumers will be invited to stick around after the workshop for the first-ever Beer Cocktail competition, which will be held at The Attic. A total of 24 Melbourne venues have been invited to enter a beer cocktail recipe and the top four will be chosen to compete on the night.

“There hasn’t been a beer cocktail comp before as far as we know. We basically said they can do what they like but the beer has to be the hero of the drink. The prize is under wraps at the moment but we are organising something really cool,” Hysted said.

Over the past few years, there has been a growth in the popularity of beer-based cocktails in Melbourne, Hysted added, and a lot more bartenders have been experimenting with using beer as a cocktail ingredient.

“Even if it’s just carbonating their drinks with beers or reducing beers down to syrups, which is something we’ve seen a lot of.”