Albert Camus once said, “Life is a sum of your choices.” It’s so easy to look around us and create a narrative of who we are, how we interact with those around us and the image we think we are projecting. For example, I like to think I am on this website reviewing just the most cutting edge projects, but I’m now realizing that I have carved out quite a niche with the fruit-infused beers, whiskeys, vodkas and moonshine.

I bring this up because now that these things are so widespread, they almost have a tendency to run together. This is not a shot at these products, but there’s only so many ways to convey “hey, it’s pretty good, especially if you like this flavor, but runs a little sweet.”

That’s why, when I had a chance to review Sam Adams mango-infused Rebel Juiced IPA, I perked up at the pitch. Rather than simply pour and sip, they suggested I use the beer as a base for three brunch cocktails designed to bring out the mango flavor of the beer. These weren’t the simple summer beer type recipes either, which made it much more interesting. I also had a recent experience ordering a beer cocktail at a well-known suburban cocktail establishment that ended with the bartender condescendingly asking me if I was sure I wanted that and if I understood how beer cocktails work, so I was properly motivated to make some good ones.  So, I gathered a few friends on a weekend night downtown, bought my ingredients and went to work.

Before I dive in, I will say this beer really does stand well on its own. A few of my favorite breweries have failed pretty miserably to incorporate mango, but this didn’t taste artificial at all. I like the standard Rebel IPA as is (read more here about its recent evolution) and would still stick with that straight up, but it was nice to have a fruit beer come in at over 6% and not have a hint of cleaning product taste to it.

Back to the cocktails, first up was the Rebel Rumba, which was the favorite of the group by far. It was tropical and the beer blended into the cocktail. We found ourselves playing with the curacao and rum ratios a bit more and created a stronger hybrid that had quite a kick.

Rebel Rumba
1/4oz orgeat
3/4oz lime juice
1/2oz Dry Curaçao
1/2oz dark rum
1/2oz white rum
3oz Sam Adam’s Rebel Juiced IPA

Combine all ingredients into a shaker and shake. Strain into wine glass, add ice and garnish with fresh mango or pineapple and mint.

Next up was the Juicy Fruit. Aperol has been a nemesis of mine ever since I first started trying to mix cocktails without measuring carefully. A little goes a long way, so I was very interested to see how this one turned out. I would suggest maybe going down to 1.5 ounces of aperol if you’re not into the taste (or just add a bit more juice), but this turned out really well.

Juicy Fruit
3oz Sam Adam’s Rebel Juiced IPA
2oz Aperol
1oz Grapefruit juice

Build in wine glass, add ice, garnish with half Grapefruit wheel.

The Gin & Juiced is technically the most like a summer beer, but the floral gin, juice and syrup was much more interesting than the usual combo. This was a strong second to the Rebel Rumba and another one we wanted to play with a bit more. We did add a splash of the grapefruit juice to a second batch and that also turned out pretty well.

Gin & Juiced
3oz Sam Adams Rebel Juiced IPA
1oz Bulldog gin
3/4oz lemon juice
1/2oz honey syrup (2:1)

Add ingredients, except beer, to cocktail shaker. Shake with ice, strain into Collins glass and top with beer. Add ice, garnish with lemon wheel.

Sam Adams Rebel IPA and Rebel Juiced can be found just about anywhere for a suggested retail price between $7.99 – $9.99.