a two-fer!

There was a fad a couple of years ago for beer floats.  And oh, those were nice!  At least I thought so, but it seems like I was in the small, small minority because they disappeared and never came back.  Not that there aren't other beer cocktails out there, I just really like the excuse to have ice cream with my alcohol.  Anyway, Bee Beer promoted a couple of special mixes for summer on their Instagram a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I should try them out before summer gets away from me.  Time does tend to do that.

First was the Beechelada, a take on the Michelada, a spicy Mexican cocktail.  The original also includes beer, so it's not far off roots, it's just with Bee Beer's own brew instead of an industrial lager.  They use a pretty strongly colored hot sauce, or maybe just a lot of tomato juice, so the drink it fiery red.  Chili flakes have infiltrated the liquid, but they tend to concentrate on the bottom, where the spiciness comes out strong.  Sipping from the rim gets salty chili in there, but also more of a vinegary taste.  After a good mixing the flavors blend much better with a hint of everything in one swallow.  There enough spice to be interesting but the pickley parts give it a refreshing snap.  I was wondering if the ice cubes would dilute it in the end, but it doesn't seem like they had much impact on the overall flavor.  It was spicy for sure, but the strongest flavoring was really the salt.  It seems like a drink that needs a quick intake or a lot of maintenance in the glass.  I think the lemon slice had a hand in trapping the chili flakes at the bottom without offering a lot of taste itself.  I am not a cocktail person, even a beer cocktail person, so while this was a fun detour from my usual stuff, I don't think it's something I would seek out particularly.

I also had the Birra Colada, taking advantage of ... being there, I guess.  I will go and buy beer or go for beer and discussion, but one drink doesn't have a whole lot of pull for me.  Still, I can't say I regret it when I do drag my ass out most of the time, and this was one of those most times.  Bee Beer's colada is made with a coconut mix and their own Dr. Insólilto beer, a pineapple IPA.  If I was with several people I wonder if we would have gotten the rest of the beer from the bottle, or if they just would have used up a bottle or two for several cocktails.  Sometimes there are advantages to drinking alone, it seems.  There was a large chunk of pineapple for a tropical trimming, adding a nice touch with it's almost neon yellow color, and the beer really disappeared into the mix, leaving an off-white drink with a nice cap of foam on top.  There's lots of heavy coconut and rumminess, but not a lot of pineapple at first.  It has a little candy essence, but sweet wouldn't be the first word I would use to describe the drink.  It tastes to me like those cocktails that want to be both grown-up (heavy alcohol) and fun/easy to suck a few down (fruit, tropical flavors).  The mix doesn't seem to be very cold and it takes a couple of minutes for the ice to work its magic on the whole cocktail; unfortunately, in this case there does seem to be some dilution of flavor with the melting ice.  There are some strong woody notes in the drink, which definitely come from the mix rather than the beer.  After polishing of the birra colada I emptied the rest of the bottle into the glass, and Dr. Insólito is certainly not a woody tasting beer.  Despite being an IPA it's not very bitter either, but quite light and drinkable, and offering a clear pineapple flavor that is nicely balanced, neither excessively sweet or tart.  It really was just the thing to put out any possible Beechelada fire.

I had wanted to take a picture of the facade, but Bee Beer Debod is right in front of some improvement work being done on Plaza de España.  Not a lot of space to be taking pictures.  Also, the building is covered in scaffolding, so maybe some improvements being done there too.  But, some year they will finish redoing the plaza, and it looks like Bee Beer will have a window across the street from it, so the little terraza they have will probably be a coveted spot to park your Parque-Templo-Plaza strolling ass.