Friend 1 asks Friend 2 a seemingly trick question, "Hey, wanna go to Four Peaks for a cocktail?"
Except it's not a trick question at all.
With a new Summer Signature Craft Cocktail Menu, Four Peak Brewery in Tempe has successfully debuted cocktails that are easier drinking than one might expect from combining spirits and beers.
The menu came together with the help of locally distilled spirits and choice beers from Four Peaks' menu, all combined under the watch of Jason Asher, local spirits tastemaker and head of mixology at Young's Market.
And it turns out Four Peaks is hitting summertime hard — harder than its 8th Street Pale Ale, harder than its Kilt Lifter, its Hop Knot IPA, and harder, even, than its Raj IPA.
Take the spirited Spice of Life, in which the citrusy, crafty St. George citrus vodka levels out intense Ancho Reyes chile liqueur but gets a lengthy lift from Four Peaks' very own hefeweizen.
There's hoppy goodness, too, from Four Peaks' Hop Knot. When combined with locally distilled Copper City Bourbon and not-so-local aperitif Gancia Americano, the Tempe-made beer creates a breezy tropical storm with passion fruit and lemon in the mix — aptly going by Four Peaks Sunset on the new menu.
And while the Ginny Weasley shows off Tempe's AZ Distilling Co.'s Desert Dry Gin with fresh raspberries and Sunbru, the menu also includes classic beer cocktails such as the Mexican Michelada, traditionally made with beer, sauces, spices, and lime juice. At Four Peaks the Moonshine Michelada gets a healthy dose of Zing Zang bloody mix with Four Peaks Sunbru as its legs.
To be sure, these aren't your dad's Coronas or your grandma's martinis, and they're a world away from mixing the two together (that went poorly last time the family got together, didn't it?). With this summer menu, Four Peaks has created some boozier, mostly light, refreshingly effervescent genre-bending drinks — 15 in total.
So it seems these days, "Wanna go to Four Peaks for a cocktail?" isn't such an odd question after all.
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