AI cocktail: Amaro, IPA

A spritz with beer rather than prosecco? It’s not a new idea. In France there’s an aperitif just called “Picon Bière,” that mixes the bitter, orange Picon liqueur, usually with a lager or wheat beer. India Pale Ale features in a Southern 75 that has bourbon and lemon as well as IPA and amaro. They serve a spritz aperitif with their own micro-brewed beer at the Rifugio Laverella in the Italian Dolomite mountains, the highest microbrewery in Europe at around 2000m. You’ll find lots of recipes for Campari IPA Spritz on the web and other ideas on Reddit’s r/Amaro. So in reality I am just engaging in a very lightweight renaming, in order to introduce a simple but important cocktail to the TechnoCocktails list.

• A for Amaro
• I for IPA

If you’re using a hazy, tropical IPA (as I prefer), then a bitter amaro that’s not sweet seems to work best. I’d suggest Cynar, although I am using Amaro Formidabile that I happen to have from a visit to Rome. Or even better, make a batch of damson amaro (I’d suggest the #4 alpine recipe), as that is a great match. Alternatively, Campari works really well.