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Mixing cider and beer makes you crazy, the legend goes. Maybe this came from London goths downing blood-red cider-beer drinks mixed with blackcurrant, maybe from working stiffs tempering the beer's bite to go down smooth on the seventh pint. But Bill Clinton was refused a snakebite—cider and lager—in 2001 in Harrogate, England, on the grounds it was illegal to serve. (It's not.) "Too rowdy," the British will tell you. Well, now Portland's Gigantic Brewing and Cider Riot are making a kolsch mixed with cider and a dash of black as the spirit of punk rock in a bottle. It's a confounding concoction at first. The kolsch is smooth, the cider sweet, the blackcurrant bitterer than hops. It's a drink with flavor components that come from funny places, a sweet beer built like a Lego house. It's odd, but addictive. And 15 minutes later, you notice that, oh hell, your pint is gone at the Belmont Inn and you're somehow on your second, and you now have strong feelings about Dwight Howard. And they're not good. No, not good at all.
WWeek 2015