Since the weather has really heated up these past few weeks, I’ve been thinking of good beers to drink in the summertime. There’s just nothing quite like drinking a cold beer on a hot summer day. Fortunately this season also brings special summertime brews giving beer lovers an even greater selection to choose from.
The addition of seasonal summer beers brings up the question: What makes a good summer beer?
A good summer beer is light, both in color and the body. Summer brews are thirst quenching and full of flavor and aroma. Typically summer beers are pale ales, Pilsner, and Weissbier.
Pale ales are amber to copper colored and brewed mostly with pale malts. Pale ales have a malty profile that is balanced with hops.
Pilsners are very fragrant, complex and have a light sweetness to their flavor. The Pilsner is a well-hopped beer, but does not have the bitterness that other beers tend to have.
Weissbier is a German word that refers to variety of wheat beers. Three main Weissbiers are Berliner Weisse, the Witbier from Belgium, and American Wheat Beers (Hefeweizen). Weissbiers are unfiltered and are actually ales since they are brewed with top-fermenting yeast. They have a pale color and “weisse” actually means “white” which is why they are sometimes referred to as “white beers.”
The Berliner Weisse has low alcohol content and is brewed exclusively in the Berlin, Germany area. It has a sour flavor so it is served with sweet syrup to help balance the tanginess.
The Belgian Witbier is a brew from Belgium. Witbiers have a crisp taste that is accented with orange zest and coriander and different spices or herbs.
American Wheat Beers include Hefeweizens. Hefe refers to yeast and Weizen refers to wheat. Hefeweizens are brewed with a majority of malted wheat and some malted barley. They are pale colored and have a refreshingly crisp flavor. Hefeweizens have high carbonation which is meant to balance the malt sweetness.
To find a good summer beer, it’s a great idea to taste a variety of beers including the seasonal summer brews. You can read more about summer beers on NewsMiner and MSNBC.
Every year someone publishes a piece debunking St. Patrick’s Day myths and shedding light on the real reason for the season. Every year, like many I suspect, I neglect to read these pieces I know are written, preferring instead to indulge in what it is that I already ready know, what many already know: St. Patrick’s Day is about drinking beer, drinking Irish beer–drinking Green Irish beer.
Why is this? What is it about? Well, Ireland has something to do with green, being so green and all and having green as one of the three featured colors on its flag (the others are orange and white–here I go forcing you to actually learn something about Ireland). In the United States, at least, Ireland is green, St. Patrick’s Day is green, Ireland is St. Patrick’s Day and, no matter the reason, they’re all inextricably linked together. So on this St. Patrick’s Day, the day of green, of Ireland, of pinching and, most importantly, of beer (and let’s not forget the Irish are equal opportunity drinkers; Irish whiskey is a fine spirit and intoxication fortifier for this most special of days), it only makes sense (I guess) to drink green Irish beer.
And the reason for this? Well sometimes an acceptable reason to do something is to flip the question on its head and ask “Why not?” So, I put it to you: Why not drink green beer on St. Patrick’s Day? See you at the pub.
Beer used to be considered an alcoholic beverage for the working class. It was inexpensive and plentiful. You certainly never had to worry about a bar not having beer available.
At one time, the only beer that was available was domestic beer. People drank what was brewed locally and were satisfied with that. Now that foreign beers are available in bars and stores, it seems as if drinking a local product isn’t, well, cool anymore. Have we become a bunch of beer snobs? Since when should we be influenced by what type of beer is “cool” to drink?
There is nothing wrong with trying a different brand to see if you like it, but don’t be influenced by what anyone else tells you that you “should” be drinking. The brand of beer you should drink is the brand that you happen to enjoy the most. Instead of trying to impress other people with how cool we are because of our choice of ale, why don’t we just drink what we like instead? Does it matter what anyone else thinks about our choices in beer or anything else we decide we want to consume? I think not.
Jodee Redmond
April 9th, 2009 by Beverage Blogger | Posted in General | Comments (0)
Since the weather has really heated up these past few weeks, I’ve been thinking of good beers to drink in the summertime. There’s just nothing quite like drinking a cold beer on a hot summer day. Fortunately this season also brings special summertime brews giving beer lovers an even greater selection to choose from.
Every year someone publishes a piece debunking 
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