Summer Beer

Summer is the time for crisp and refreshing beers.  For many that means a cooler stocked with PBR, Corona, Pacifico, Bud or Miller, but I've never been a fan of fizzy yellow beer. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm a big fan of sour, cidery beers especially in the summer. Here then are some of my favorite tipples on a warm summer's eve. 

New Belgium's Lips of Faith Transatlantique Kriek a tart cherry kriek, light and refreshing lambic. Just enough sweet on the finish to balance the beer's sour fore palate. 

The Bruery's Saison Rue an inspired french farm house ale, malty with a hint of rye and the floral/citrus yeast one expects from a saison. I like it fresh, but others believe this beer changes becoming more complex (better?) with age. 

 The Bruery's Hottenroth Berliner Weisse. An extremely light (3%) beer, with a wonderful tartness and funk from fermentation with Lactobacillus and brettanomyces. This beer is a fantastic beer to introduce friends to sours.

Last year you would have found me waxing poetic about Beachwood BBQ Long Beach's Tart Simpson, but Julian and his crew haven't made this, one of my favorites, for quite some time. Instead, I have been enjoying their El Verano Saison, a fantastic and well brewed traditional saison perfect for sipping on their patio as the sun dips below the downtown skyline. 

Smog City Brewing's Quercus Circus a deliciously sour American wild ale. Sour and cidery with a great acidic and yeasty bite. Lip puckering good. 

For those who don't like the sours or the funk of the Belgian ales Firestone Walker's Pivo Pils offers an interesting and tasty pilsner that would find a comfortable home in any hop head's refrigerator. This pilsner is surprisingly good, crisp and malty, but with a kick from a heavy dose of noble hops. Delicious. I'm also enjoying their 805, a mild blond ale  that's supposedly only available in that area code, but Lazy Acres in Long Beach, CA has palette full.  

There is also Sierra Nevada's Summerfest, Alsakan Brewing Summer Ale (Kolsch), Bell's Oberon, Dogfish Head's Festina Peche, Anchor's California Lager, Golden Road's Point the Way IPA, Deschutes Twilight and Surly's Bitter Brewer. Whatever you drink this summer make sure it's good.