Taste the sweet malts of summer

By: Tom Goodwin

Posted: 6/15/09

Brewers love seasons. They're a great excuse to make new seasonal beers, which I have to admit often look very enticing. Seasons can conjure up sentimental memories for us: a wonderful fall day raking leaves or a wintry afternoon spent building a snowman before going inside to have hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire.

You may be thinking of any of these memories as you wander aimlessly down the aisles of your favorite liquor store, finally resting your tired eyes on a bottle with a happy little sun and rainbows spewing everywhere.

One of the best and worst things about seasonal beers is the extreme variation that occurs between breweries. Originality is great, but sometimes you want to reach for a beer and know what you're getting into beforehand.

With seasonal beers, you have only the slightest hint of what you may be buying, and most of that is veiled in obscure imagery.

Typically summer beers suffer from this terrible craft beer syndrome where every brewery is trying to be lighter than the next - some are mere angstroms of difference from water in color, body and flavor. Breweries who normally make perfectly wonderful beers churn out this swill like it's expected of them.

On the whole these beers are generally lightly hopped and low-alcohol, with only slight hints of malt or grain flavor. They also often use high proportions of wheat to further lighten the body, which can sometimes create a tart sensation. Many either include or try to replicate citrus fruits for the refreshing quality.

I tried pretty much every summer themed beer I could get my hands on. There were few among them that really stood out, and more that left me feeling cheated and used.

First off, the bad list.

If you enjoy the refreshing taste of Pine-Sol, Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy is definitely the beer for you. I nearly gagged on my first sip of this; it looks and smells like lemonade and tastes like cleaning solution mixed with a splash of beer.

Magic Hat's Wacko tastes pretty much like Number 9 if you forget the apricot and most of the flavor. Then they made it pink with beet juice. I'm not kidding. I love it when breweries break boundaries for artistic purposes, but when you color your extremely average cream ale pink, I'd call that a gimmick.

Now for the good list.

By far the best summer beer I've tried has to be Sierra Nevada's Summerfest Lager. This medium bodied, golden brew is very much like a traditional German lager and carries a nice soft hop bite. Sierra Nevada also proves that you don't need to avoid the hops to be refreshing, as this has just the perfect amount of bitterness to quench your thirst.

Southern Tier's Hop Sun is probably the most interesting summer beer I got my hands on. The aroma is like pure honey with citrus and floral hop scents. The taste is a mixture of honey, fruits such as raisin and apple and some malty breadiness, perfectly balanced with hop bitterness and flavor. This beer is definitely worth checking out.

Samuel Adams Summer Ale was also surprisingly good; a slightly spiced take on an American wheat beer, lemon zest and grains of paradise are added to give it that little zing and lovely tart sensation. You would have no problem knocking back a few of these on a hot day.

As you waste away the hot days of summer (they're coming. I'm sure. Maybe. Stupid New England weather), some of you stuck in class, others working terrible service industry jobs, you can always rely on a few good brews at the end of the day.

Until next time, sláinte!