Put away your porters and banish your barleywine! Stow away your stouts and discard those doppelbocks! It’s finally summertime, and that means summer beers.
Light, crisp, refreshing and often lower in alcohol we’ve discovered, with the help of Seattle’s Teku Tavern, eight elite choices for warm-weather sipping. So, it’s time to prepare your pilsners and kick-start those Kölsches. Haul out those Hefes and lasso your lagers. Here’s to summer!
Isarweizen Hefeweizen | Heater Allen – McMinnville, Ore
Inspired by a year studying the craft of brewing at the Isar Brau Brew Pub in Munich, Germany, the lager specialists at Heater Allen unleash this wheat beer each summer on the strength of its traditional clove and nutmeg spiciness. Those notes combine with banana and a touch of acidity to produce a crisp, refreshing drink ideally suited for hot summer days — or nights.
4.8% ABV
Liberty & Justice For All IPA | Block 15 – Corvallis, Or
Dedicated to Block 15’s “shared vision of liberty for all Americans and our need to stand with those whose dreams of equality are yet unrealized,” this hop-heavy IPA benefits from the first-time addition of Amarillo terpenes in the dry hop post-fermentation. Terpenes take the form of liquified carbon dioxide, and Block 15 used ones fortified with an Amarillo concentrate to give the beer a full, rounded flavor. All proceeds from sales of Liberty & Justice For All will be donated to Unite Oregon.
7% ABV
Ping Pong Table Beer | Ale Apothecary – Bend, OR
This Belgian/French table beer comes from the mad scientists at Ale Apothecary, aged in oak barrels and brewed with organic malts and hops produced in Oregon. The beer is naturally conditioned in cans with organic sugar cane, resulting in a quenching beer with just the right amount of yeasty funk and dryness to keep you coming back.
4.2% ABV
Mange Tango Summer Ale | Bale Breaker Brewing Company – Yakima, Wa
Bale Breaker’s annual Sesiones del Migrante release has dropped for 2023 and, as always, celebrates the migrant workers who travel to Yakima each summer from Mexico to harvest hops for breweries worldwide. A portion of the proceeds from this beer will go to local nonprofits working with migrant farm workers. This year’s iteration, a fruit-forward pale ale, is loaded with 28 pounds of mango puree per barrel, and the nose and palate are both redolent with ripe mango, with hints of mandarin orange.
5.9% ABV
The Grafted Rose | Garden Path Fermentation – Burlington, Wa
The folks at Garden Path are always bringing innovative wild fermented beers to the table and this golden ale co-fermented with local Skagit County apples and foraged rosehips is no different. A natural pairing, the fruity, tangy notes of the floral rosehips complement the sweetness of the apples, leading to a sophisticated libation adroitly straddling the sweet-tart-dry triangle.
6.2% ABV
Beer Pier Pilsner | Fort George Brewery – Astoria, OR
Possibly the quintessential summer beer, this light, crisp and refreshing pilsner pours clear with faint notes of citrus, honeysuckle and cracker on the nose, giving way to bready sweetness and a fizzy mouthfeel. A light, bitter finish completes this summer classic, and it’s ready to be enjoyed on Fort George’s Beer Pier on the Astoria waterfront.
5.8% ABV
Peach Bellini Sour | Lucky Envelope Brewing – Seattle, WA
A sweet and refreshing peach bellini under an umbrella on Italy’s Amalfi Coast sounds pretty luxurious and summer-tastic, doesn’t it? Lucky Envelope has created the beer equivalent, fortifying its dry sparkling sour base beer with peach and apricot puree, producing a quenching and effervescent offering best suited to a lazy summer afternoon. Molto bene!
6.7% ABV
Czech in the Dark Czech Dark Lager | Reuben’s Brews – SeattlE, WA
Take a break from the lighter summer beers and dive into this nuanced-yet-crushable selection from Reuben’s, with a recipe designed by the winner of the brewery’s Pro-Am Homebrew Contest. A whopping five types of malt bring notes of toast, dark fruit, coffee, chocolate and caramel to the table, balanced by subtle and spicy noble hops.
5% ABV
