So I realize that after averaging out to a post a month or so, putting up two things in the span of an hour may be establishing a dangerous precedent, but I just tried an experiment that turned out well, and I thought I'd share it with you.
We recently bought a huge bottle of pomegranate molasses. For those of you who haven't tried it, it's delicious stuff--basically just hyper-concentrated pomegranate juice, it's slightly sweet, quite tart, and has intense pomegranate flavor. I tend just to mix it with seltzer (one finger or so at the bottom of a pint glass is plenty), but today I decided to try something bolder. Something stranger, and more potent. Something...
WITH BEER!
Now, before you call me too crazy, I'm not suggesting you go dumping pomegranate into your IPA, let alone your Guinness. What I had on hand, rather, was a bottle of Sam Adams Summer Ale, which is a wheat beer brewed with lemon and grains of paradise (although it does have a more traditionally ale-like flavor profile than some wheat beers--I suspect this would work even better with one of the unfiltered wheat beers, and might reach its peak with a hefeweizen). I put in a decent-sized glug of the molasses, just enough to leave a thin visible layer at the bottom of the glass. Then I stirred like mad with an iced tea spoon--this stuff is thick, and takes a while to integrate. If you add too much syrup, you can safely dilute to your taste with fizzy water (unless you have more beer, in which case of course use that.) The result is a nicely tart, refreshing beverage that's perfect for a 105-degree scorcher like today. Cheers!
There's nothing new under the sun -- back in the mid-80s, I took a trip to NYC with my daughter Blake to visit her friend Susie, who was living in Jersey City. Susie took us to a bar in Hoboken that served a beer/raspberry syrup concoction that was exactly what you are describing with the pomegranate. I loved it, and I would probably love your version also.
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