Food - Drink
Red Beer Is The Michelada Of The Midwest
By MELISSA NICHOLSON
If you're hanging with a Midwesterner at a bar and hear them order a red beer, they won't be served a red-colored ale, but a beverage that combines beer and tomato juice. Red beer is known as the "michelada of the Midwest," and though this drink is similar to a classic michelada, these cocktails also have their differences.
The michelada, a combo of beer, lime juice, hot sauces, spice, and chili peppers, is famously named after a Mexican Revolution General, but historians can’t pinpoint the origins of red beer, AKA a “Bloody Beer,” “Red Eye,” or “Red Rooster.” A lack of a grand origin story still hasn't harmed the drink's popularity in the American Midwest.
Midwesterners enjoy red beers at all times of the day, and while the beer of choice is always a light pilsner, such as Bud Light or Busch Lite, the ratio of tomato juice to beer depends on the drinker's preference. You can even get creative by adding other ingredients like chocolate, fish sauce, hot sauce, raw eggs, and garlic cloves.