What better way to celebrate Labor Day than with a few two ingredient beer cocktails? Labor Day celebrates the hard working American laborer and is often observed as a day (or weekend) set aside for end of summer parties and celebrations. We could opt for high end, call out all the stops, seventeen ingredient cocktails to “Wow” and impress friends and guests, but why? There are many refreshingly satisfying two ingredient beer cocktails waiting in the wings. No muss, no fuss.

More Labor Day & two ingredient cocktails to enjoy.

Two Ingredient Beer Cocktails

Black Cossack

Chilled vodka adds a friendly little kick to this rich beer. If vodka isn’t your thing, try another spirit that floats your boat. You could also try flavored vodkas or rums if you prefer.

1 ounce Vodka

1/2 pint Guinness

Place chilled vodka into a chilled tall glass or half-pint glass. Top with well-chilled Guinness. Wait for the foamy head to relax and sip with pleasure.

Raspberry Shandy

Dress the drink by adding a handful of fresh or frozen raspberries to the glass. Frozen berries will help keep the drink chilled. Raspberry lemonade concentrate adds a hint of fruity sweetness to the glass.

6 ounces Light Beer

2 ounces Frozen Raspberry Lemonade Concentrate – thawed

Place thawed raspberry lemonade concentrate into a chilled tall glass. Top with light beer of choice.

Shandy

Shandy is a generic term for drinks of beer mixed with a carbonated beverage, juice or lemonade. Choose your favorite carbonated beverage, juice or lemonade and drink up. Be sure everything is well-chilled first.

Sprite, Lemonade, Orange Juice, etc

Beer

Place mixer to the halfway point in a chilled tall glass without ice. Top with chilled beer of choice.

Michelada

I have a friend who loves the taste of bloody mary mix, but can’t stand an actual Bloody Mary. What he does love is Micheladas, beer and bloody mary mix. Some people make the Michelada with beer and spices rather than bloody mary mix. That’s perfectly fine too, but this way you get some good old fashioned tomato in there, too.

Light Beer

Bloody Mary Mix – make your own

Fill a tall chilled glass 2/3 full with beer of choice. I prefer light beer for this. Top with your favorite bloody mary mix. Stir briefly. Enjoy.

Another version of the Michelada combines Mexican beer with fresh lime juice in a salt rimmed glass. You’ll need 12 ounces of Tecate, Dos Equis XX, or Montejo beer, 1 to 2 ounces fresh lime juice according to tartness preference, and salt. Rim a chilled glass with fresh lime and dip the rim into coarse salt. Pour chilled lime juice into the glass. Top with Mexican beer.

Full Moon

Full moon is basically a standard Shandy, but this one calls for a specific beer making it a Full Moon. This recipe comes from Mike’s Hard Lemonade

6 ounces Hard Lemonade – chilled

6 ounces Blue Moon Beer

Orange Slice – optional

Place hard lemonade in a tall chilled glass without ice. Top with Blue Moon beer. Garnish with orange wheel if desired.

Black and Tan

The Black and Tan is easily forgotten. Remember it next St. Patrick’s Day. Grab your black and tan tool (the turtle or this layering tool) The second link takes you to The Perfect Black and Tan Layering Tool. There are step by step photos detailing how to layer this drink.

The video above demonstrates The Perfect Black and Tan tool. I’ve skipped to 2:38 in the video where it is demonstrated correctly with the correct style of Guinness Beer.

Makes 2

12 ounces Lager Beer – chilled

12 ounces Irish Stout or Guinness Beer – chilled

Pour half of the lager beer into a tall chilled glass. Repeat for the second glass. Place black and tan layering tool over the top of the glass. Gently pour half of the stout beer over the tool so it slips down the side of the glass, layering on top of the lager. Repeat process for the second glass. Allow the drink to stand for a moment so the layers even out.

If you don’t have a black and tan layering tool, place a large spoon dome side up inside the glass. Make sure the spoon is at a slight downward angle with the tip of the spoon resting on the inside of the glass. Slowly pour the stout beer over the spoon so the liquid fans out toward the inside edges of the glass. This is the same method used for layering shots. The Blonde Bombshell shot shows this technique.

Depth Charge

This is basically a bomb shot, a drink consisting of one drink with a small shot glass containing another drink inside of the larger glass. Some states have laws against bars serving this type of drink. When this is the case some bartenders serve each individual drink side by side (served Boilermaker style). The customer can then place the smaller shot inside the larger drink if desired.

If considering placing one glass inside another to drink, be aware the inner glass could chip when bumping against the larger glass. The smaller glass shot could also slip and crash into your teeth or gums causing a chip or cut. There are specially made plastic bomb shot glasses to prevent these types of accidents.

1 ounce Schnapps

1/2 pint Beer

Place schnapps flavor of your choice into small shot. Drop it into a chilled mug filled with beer.

Common drinks served like this include Jager Bombs (Jager + energy drink) and Irish Car Bombs.

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All content ©2016 Cheri Loughlin, The Intoxicologist. All Rights Reserved. Chat with Cheri @Intoxicologist on Twitter and facebook.com/Intoxicologist

Cheri Loughlin is the Omaha writer and photographer behind www.intoxicologist.net and author of Cocktails with a Tryst: An Affair with Mixology and Seduction. You can email Cheri with comments and questions at str8upcocktails@gmail.com.