Hello again! We’ve had a busy last few weeks, which completely disrupted our usual Friday Happy Hour cocktail posts. But now we’re back and wanted to get right into our theme for this month: beer cocktails! We’re starting off with a slight variation on a vintage cocktail, the Last Word: a Hoppy Last Word cocktail recipe with a Belgian Pale Ale and green chartreuse that’s perfect for this fall weather. –Andrew

Hoppy Last Word

3/4 oz Dry Gin
3/4 oz Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur
3/4 oz Lime Juice
Pale Ale

Combine everything except the beer in a shaker filled two-thirds with ice and shake well. Strain into a coupe glass and top with a splash of the beer. Enjoy!

We last featured the Last Word three (!) years ago. It’s a weird, wonderful, pungent combination of equal measures of gin, green chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice. New York bartender Phil Ward calls it “a four-way car crash in which no one is hurt and everyone’s glad they met afterward,” which sums it up nicely.

The Last Word’s simple formula of four equal measures – a base spirit, citrus, and two flavorful liqueurs, with lots of herbaceous botanicals – is ripe for variation. This recipe doesn’t do anything too crazy to the original, but it does add some bright effervescence and an extra layer of complexity.

We tried this a couple of ways and settled on a Belgian pale ale by a local DC brewery, DC Brau. A bitter IPA would overwhelm this drink with too many botanicals, while a gentle, fruity wheat beer would be too limp in the face of so many strong flavors. So we split the difference with a Belgian pale ale, with just enough bitterness to stand up to the Last Word. It’s still a weird, pungent drink, but also light and flavorful and wonderful, and perfect for the fall.

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Glassware by Liquorary

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper