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Whether you’re not much of a beer drinker (but wish you were), or love beer (but wish you could try something new), beer cocktails were created just for you. They’ve been popping up everywhere we look and we can’t help but love them (most of them anyway).

Yes, we know that beer cocktails are not a crazy new innovative thing. They’ve actually been around, like, forever (…we’ve never been very good with dates). If you’re a beer cocktail newbie, you may want to start off slow with a classic: the shandy. The shandy is awesome for summer and so easy to make – it’s basically 50/50 beer and lemonade, though you can adjust the ratio according to your taste. Some people also like to use a lemon-lime soda instead of lemonade, if that’s more your style.

But we’re more interested in how creative they’ve gotten lately. With craft beer on the rise and mixologists experimenting with interesting combinations, the 2.0 version of beer cocktails look like a lot of fun to make, and to drink. For example, at Dandelion in Philadelphia, there is a beer cocktail called Summer Beer Flip – it’s Bacardi rum, apricot marmalade, chocolate bitters, an egg, a German Pilsner style beer and cinnamon.

Here are a few recipes you can try at home:

• Tom Terrific. Combine 1.75 oz. Old Tom gin, .5 oz. Cherry Heering, .5 oz. simple syrup, .5 oz. lemon juice in a shaker. Strain over ice and top with 2 oz. of an IPA of your choice.

• Summer Hoedown. Fill pitcher with 6 cups of watermelon juice and combine with 2 tbsp sugar. Let chill. When you’re ready to serve, add ¼ cup of maraschino liqueur and 4 bottles of white beer(Hoegaarden). Pour and enjoy.

• Captain’s Keg. Grab a glass filled with ice and pour in 1 oz. spiced rum, 1 oz. guava nectar and 1 oz. ruby red grapefruit juice. Then, top it with beer, stir and garnish with a lime wheel.

Just get creative. Not everything is going to taste good together, but that’s the beauty of experimenting. Summer is prime time for beer cocktails, so have fun and let us know if you come up with any awesome combinations.

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