Chef John's "Sunset" Michelada

Use homemade vegetable juice or store-bought tomato juice to make this Michelada: a spicy, savory, tangy, and amazingly refreshing beer cocktail.

• Preparation Time: 5 mins
• Total Time: 5 mins
• Calories: 244 Calories

Ingredients

• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lime, halved
• ice cubes
• 2 pints sweet cherry tomatoes
• 1 pinch dried red chile pepper
• 1/4 cup homemade vegetable juice
• 0.5 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 0.5 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 0.25 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 0.25 cup chopped celery
• 0.5 teaspoon flake sea salt (such as Maldon®)
• 0.125 teaspoon soy sauce
• 0.5 (12 fluid ounce) bottle ice-cold Mexican lager

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Place cherry tomatoes, celery, and red bell pepper into a blender. Pulse a few times to get mixture moving. Blend on high until mixture has liquefied, a few more seconds. Place strainer over a bowl and strain mixture to remove seeds and skins. Push mixture through strainer with a spatula to extract the liquid. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 2

Sprinkle flake salt, black pepper, and chili pepper on a small plate. Rub rim of a glass with cut surface of a lime. Invert glass and dip rim into salt mixture.

Step 3

Fill glass with ice and add Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and soy sauce. Pour in the vegetable juice and juice of 1/2 lime. Fill the glass 3/4 of the way with ice-cold beer. Stir. Top off with more beer. Garnish with lime slice.