HOPTAILS: Beer plus Flavor equals Sales.

How do you get more of your patrons to drink your beer when the preference for cocktails and more flavorful bevvies is ramping up?

You couldn't operate a bar without them-Barley Pop, Breakfast of Champions, Liquid Gold. Your draft and bottled beers probably do fine on their own, straight from the tap or in longneck bottles.

But beer sales, while still very strong, have been given a run for their money lately as spirit sales continue to spike in a lot of restaurants. While any category sales spurt is good for business, there is a slight downside to the growth in the ultra-premium stuff. High beer sales traditionally help keep bar costs low and some operators have noticed a slight creep up in costs as patrons eschew the bar managers' friends, well liquor and tap beer, and upgrade to call and premium brands of liquor. Lovely for the cash register, but harder on bar cost.

You also know the truth of this when bar costs rise in the winter, where traditionally liquor sales command a larger portion of bar sales than in the summer months when beer reigns supreme. Seasonal preferences notwithstanding, this could have something to do with the fact that cocktails, liquor and wine are regularly marketed to women, while Friend Beer is not marketed to women at all, And, once in a while, you see an actual woman in your establishment and she is probably drinking products that have cared enough to make an effort to appeal to her and they're not beer.

So, how do you get more of your patrons to drink your beer when the preference for cocktails and more flavorful bevvies is ramping up?

Make beer more appealing to those who might choose otherwise. Think out of the box and create some hoptails: cocktails made with beer. There are many ways to use beer with other ingredients to make a beverage better than its individual parts. Getting customers to try the beers may take a bit more salesmanship, but it can be worth the effort.

Hop Along with Hoptails

Hoptails are beverages made by combining a brew of your choice with flavored spirits, mixers or other ingredients. The mere idea might (probably) offend purists, who see beer as sacrosanct, but, hey, success in the bar business is about profits and sales and usable assets. I say that selling more beer is good for the bottom line, particularly if you brew your own. Then it really is turning water into profits. And any way you can manage to accomplish that end is a good thing.

This theory sort of follows the lines of the brief popularity among brewpubs of fruit and flavored beers. Remember how pervasive those were? The problem was, those brews may have been great tasting when brewers was using real berries and maple and spices, but after a while, the cost and hassle to maintain those standards drove some brewers instead to use artificial flavors, which ended up tasting more like formaldehyde than fruit. Ergo, many of the brews died a merciful death, not because no one liked flavored beers, but because the flavoring agents were heinous, in my opinion.

There is a better way, though, using high quality liqueurs and syrups that are made with real flavors. How?

Take your favorite beer of choice... consider its qualities and properties. Is it a cool and lightly effervescent lager? What flavor would match well with it? Perhaps something fruity, like peach or apricot brandy, Limoncello, Alize, blue curacao, sloe gin or other flavors.

Or you could try serving a wheat beer with a dash of lemon-, orange- or lime-flavored liqueur and a fresh wedge of the complementary fruit...a natural match.

Then there's that old summertime stand-by, the Shandy Gaff, a refreshing blend of lager and ginger ale or ginger beer. Or a Lemon Top: lager topped with a splash of lemon-lime soda. Both taste even better when served on the rocks.

Do these drinks make you shudder? I'll say it again.., on the rocks! One of the biggest complaints most patrons who are not regular beer consumers have about beer is that it gets warm before they can drink it all. So throw some ice in it (ask first, of course); it doesn't melt fast enough to dilute the beer and the beverage stays quixotically cold.

How to Make the Flavors Hop

Now, think of other styles of beer and what would complement them:

Brown ales: Amaretto, vanilla vodka, sweet vermouth, dark rum, brandy, dark creme de cacao, Calvados, Chambord, cassis -- anything full-flavored and rich, to blend with the smooth, creamy qualities of the beer.

Porters: These are the best for Hoptails, Use any of the flavors suggested above with brown ale, plus more strongly flavored liqueurs, like Tia Maria, blackberry brandy, Southern Comfort, Grand Marnier or Drambuie. These add another dimension to a fully actualized beer.

Stouts: What I like the most with stout is good vanilla ice cream; it's my current fave, the Stout Shake! Throw about a cup and a half of stout in the blender with two scoops of premium vanilla ice cream and whirl away; it's one of the truly great taste thrills in life. Try this with other ice cream flavors -- coffee, chocolate or strawberry -- and offer the combo as a dessert selection. Or even float the scoop in the stout, then pour a shot of Kahlua over the ice cream for a sexy twist on the old Ice Cream Soda idea! Or try a "Stout n' Nog," good eggnog and stout blended together. It's even better with a dash of bourbon's flavor.

Of course, one should not forget those old college favorites, the Boilermaker and the Depth Charge, traditionally made with a lager and a shot of bourbon. But why not suggest a porter with a shot of Kahlua? Or a stout and a shot of blackberry brandy? Or a lager and a depth charge of Grand Marnier? Think like a chef and invent different flavor combinations! Think like a bar manager and invent more profits!

Then there are those beverages that mix several ingredients with beer:

The Bismarck

Dark beer mixed with Champagne

Reverend Craig

11/4 oz. bourbon and 2 oz. sweet & sour in a pint glass. Fill with lager.

Red Beer

2 oz. of tomato juice, bloody Mary mix or other tomato-based beverage; fill with lager or pale ale.

Run, Skip & Go Naked

1/2 oz. each brandy, rum, gin, triple sec, 2 oz. sweet & sour in a pint glass; fill with lager or pale ale

Barley Mary

a traditional Bloody Mary topped with 2 oz. beer

Bier Grog

Heated dark beer mixed with 2 tablespoons simple syrup and a dash of grated orange peel

Brown Velvet

Stout and port wine

The options are limited only to you and your bar staff's willingness to experiment. You will need to experiment with different combinations to determine what you like, what tastes good, how to present the hoptail properly, and what might sell. But build the creative side of the list on those classic beer pairings that seem to have been around forever.

Beer Buddies

Who hasn't had a delicious Black & Tan (Guinness and Bass Ale)? Or a light and sassy Half & Half (Guinness and Harp)? But there are some new combos about these days; perhaps their more traditional combinations will be easier to sell.

The Grandfather

Guinness, Bass and Harp

The Black & Brown

Guinness and Newcastle Brown

The Snakebite or Black Velvet

Guinness and hard cider

Traditional English Snakebite

lager and hard cider, with the addition sometimes of a splash of black currant (cassis) liqueur

The Pink Panther

Guinness and a good raspberry-flavored ale

The Black Ape

Guinness and Pyramid Apricot Ale

The Belgian Waffle

Tommyknocker Maple Nut and Pete's Strawberry Blonde

Well, you get the idea. Use local microbrews for your combos, those brews whose flavors your customers already recognize and which might meld nicely with other local micros. Again, imagination, a sense of humor and some actual taste are all that's necessary.

So, have some fun, experiment, play around...run staff incentives for the best combinations and use their winning entries as a special. Creating hoptails can spark up a tired beverage menu, build business among those customers not already beer-mad, and keep your staff hoping. And, of course, they can add some flavor and spark to your beer sales.