As the days stretch longer, wildflowers are blooming in the Columbia River Gorge and taprooms are raising their garage doors to let in the warm rays of the sun. Craft brewers around Oregon are brewing light, breezy, golden beers that mimic this vibrant light and the easy feeling of spring and summer in the Pacific Northwest. Some of these easy beers for easy times have names like Beach Beer and Dad Beer to make it simple to discern the vibes inside the can.
Blonde Ale, born in the United States during the microbrewery boom of the 1980s to mimic American lagers and other light lagers, is flowing through taps and filling cans just in time for long sunny days.
Pelican Brewing’s Blond Ale is helpfully labeled as Beach Beer — the perfect day drink to sip and watch the waves. This is particularly true at their flagship location in Pacific City with a patio right on the Pacific Ocean. This light, crisp beer with a touch of hops on the finish is the beer equivalent of the beach read — easy, effortless and satisfying.
Evoking the essence of summer fruit is another way to craft a summer beer, especially in Blonde Ales. Rogue Brewing adds sweet marionberries and plum flavors to its Berry Blonde, creating a nice slightly fruity sipper to tuck into picnic baskets or day-hike backpacks. Pfriem evokes a European influence with its Belgian Blonde — an elegant celebratory ale with apricot, pear and clove notes and a sophisticated clean, dry finish.
Deschutes’ Shandy also relies on summer fruit — a light beer with a bright lemonade flavor that provides a fresh-squeezed taste that is slightly boozy (it has a 5% ABV). Deschutes’ creation is an homage to the lemonade-and-beer cocktail that was a popular low-ABV alternative long before low-alc and non-alc beverages were trending.
Baerlic’s Dad Beer, a pre-prohibition lager, is perfect for holding in one hand while grilling burgers or slipping into a pocket while mowing the lawn. Based on a recipe used by German immigrants to the states in the 1880s and rediscovered in the 1990s by homebrewers, Baerlic’s president Ben Parsons created this crushable throwback in homage to his estranged father who passed away in 2017. “It was an attempt to brew a beer that he might like — based on info from some of his friends and what little I knew about him — as a way to better connect to the human he was,” he says.
