Summer 2013 Beer Preview: Looking Ahead to the Perfect Brews for the Season

New Glarus Raspberry Tart on Labor Day Weekend 2012 on Lake Waramaug, CT

With just one day left in April and the weather finally on a positive mend, we're already well on our way to summer. In anticipation of many hot sunny days spent BBQing in the back yard, rocking on the front porch, and reading on the beach, this beer preview looks ahead to some of the most seasonally appropriate brews for summer - namely, those that are highly refreshing and sessionable (low alcohol content), as well as those that feature sour, fruit, or wheat tastes.

My first summer beer-love (see above) was New Glarus Raspberry Tart (4% ABV). Way back before I was even interested in beer, I came across a highly descriptive suite of reviews on The Beverage Tasting Institute's website. One of the foremost there was Raspberry Tart, which their staff described accordingly: "Deep scarlet mahogany color. Aromas of toasted raspberry pastry and oily roasted nuts with a tangy, fruity-yet-dry medium-full body and a suede, Meyer lemon, and grassy earth accented finish. Fantastically flavorful." As a less-savvy beer consumer at the time, I was amazed that anything that qualified as beer could also be so clearly fruit-flavor-driven. I enthusiastically began a search to obtain a bottle, but quickly found that Raspberry Tart, like all of the brews from the world-class New Glarus Brewery, were only available for purchase in their home state of Wisconsin. This might have proved a challenge, were it not for the fact that I luckily lived in Chicago at the time. On the way up to a friend's house on Lake Geneva that summer, I dropped into Bruno's Liquors (524 Broad Street, Lake Geneva, WI - 262 248 6407) and picked up two bottles of Raspberry Tart and two of New Glarus' Belgian Red (4% ABV), their famed cherry beer (both $10/25 oz bottle). Over the course of that summer, and for every summer since, I've cut the colored wax seal on a couple of these lovely bottles - mauve for Raspberry Tart and fire-engine red for Belgian Red.

Raspberry Tart pours a beautiful scarlet-ruby with a slight brown tinge under the light and gorgeous lacing and head. Enormous fresh-picked raspberry aroma wafts off the surface of the beer. Drinking reveals a light-bodied, nicely carbonated mouthfeel, with an explosion of fresh raspberry juice taste that features extremely pleasant sweet-tart interplay. Some nice dried raspberry tartness rounds out the close. A perfect fruit beer and one of my top 5 beers of all time, this one scores a 4.75/5 overall. 

Belgian Red features a similarly attractive coloration to Raspberry Tart, but with a darker and more brownish-red cast. The aroma is rich with the tang of sour dried cherries. Great carbonation and wonderfully smooth mouthfeel. Tasting reveals a pronounced bit of malt taste tinged with serious fresh cherries, mascarpone, and candied cherries, then closes into a dark tart cherry fade. One of the finest dessert beers I can think of, with only its lack of serial drinkability holding it back. It thereby earns a strong 4.5/5 overall.

According to the New Glarus beer release calendar for 2013, Raspberry tart is available year-round in Wisconsin. Belgian Red, though, won't be this year, due to an abysmal cherry crop last season. What then, are fruit beer lovers of Chicago and Wisconsin to do this summer?

Embrace serendipity, of course. Or rather New Glarus Serendipity (5.1% ABV), a "happy accident fruit ale" ($10/25 oz bottle). With a challenging dearth of cherries putting the kibosh on Belgian Red, Deborah and Dan Carey (New Glarus' amiable and exceptionally-talented owners) called an audible. Bringing in reinforcements from some lovely autumn fruits - apples and cranberries - they fashioned a fruit-loaded wild ale for bottling. Following its release last fall, it casually landed a spot on the Top 50 Beers on Earth list on RateBeer, one of the web's most-respected beer reviewing websites. With availability all through this summer, this brew should prove a refreshingly sour fruit beer - which covers pretty much everything I want and love in a beer for summer.

But what if you're among the 303-odd million Americans that lives outside Wisconsin and Chicago, and you still have a hankering for some tart, refreshing fruit beer this summer? Well - you're in luck. With distribution covering 26 states and 1 district, Dogfish Head's Festina Peche (4.5% ABV) has you covered ($12/4-pack of 12 oz bottles). This one debuts in stores each June, and I'm literally counting the days till it reappears. Though I didn't take great tasting notes the first time I tried it last year, this nicely sour peach Berline-Weisse featured a gustatory spectrum of peach flavor - juicy, dried, candied, and sour, and was refreshing enough on that searing June day to merit a 4/5 overall. With its low alcohol content, this one makes a particularly compelling case for those afternoon where you want a very sessionable beer.

While we're on the topic of Berliner Weisses, I'll jaunt back to another old release of the style that I'm interested in tracking down and enjoying this summer - Pipeworks' Well Read Temptress (4.0% ABV). I reviewed this beer's highly-refreshing and food-pairing-friendly base, Flower Child, in a past post. This variation features the inclusion of raspberry flavor, in line with the old Berliner tradition of tempering a Berliner Weisse's distinct sour tang with the addition of raspberry syrup. It also features what must be the Flower Child's literarily-inclined and red-headed sister on the label, and I promise that this had absolutely no bearing on my interest in the beer. Unfortunately, this one's a Chicago-only brew, but if you're in town, you may be able to find one at Binny's Beverage Depot in Lakeview (3000 N. Clark, Chicago, IL - 773 935 9400), where it's listed as $12/25 oz bottle.

While we're on raspberry-forward beers, I'd be remiss not to mention Founders' Rubaeus (7% ABV). This brew returns in July and August after a five-year hiatus. The reason that we're blessed with its reappearance? The same bad cherry crop that sundered New Glarus' Belgian Red also sunk Founders Cerise (6.5% ABV), their summer cherry beer (quick review: ruby-pink red shaded; a watery lead-in to successive deep waves of Montmorency dark dried cherries; closes with a light cherry-tinged swallow; overall 3.5/5). Given Founders extensive distribution network - 23 at that link's count, plus recently-added Texas and Florida, this one should be much easier to get ahold of than the rest of the ones on this list. Benchmarking from Founders' other seasonal four-pack-of-12-oz-bottles prices, I'd wager that you could score an evening's worth of Rubaeus for $10-12. 

Fear not, those that miss out on the New Glarus, Pipeworks, and Founders - there's always the interesting New Belgium Rolle Bolle (5.5% ABV) to try. I'm a sucker for weird tropical fruit, and this debuting summer seasonal rises to that occasion in spades with the inclusion of soursop and monkfruit (Wikipedia links for the curious). I'll look forward to trying this light Belgian-style Pale Ale if only to see how the brewers at New Belgium manage to work such strange fruit into their brew. Plus, that is one pleasantly whimsical label, if I may say so. If this one holds pricing consistent with others for the brewery, it's likely to cost $14/12-pack of 12 oz bottles.

Past all these fruit-influenced brews, I always find myself hankering for a good Wheat Ale to help accompany some finger-licking baby-back ribs or grilled chicken. The reassuringly substantial, yet light, grain body holds up well to most of the battery of outdoor summer foods. Given my enjoyment of  the nicely hoppy-and-wheaty Three Floyds Gumballhead (5.6% ABV), which I reviewed here, I'll definitely be in the market for some new finds within this style. Half Acre's Akari Shogun (5.5% ABV) is one such beer. Debuting in snazzily-designed cans earlier this spring, this Galaxy and Motueka hopped Wheat Ale promises snappy citrus aroma and refreshing, light-bodied wheat taste. I'll be picking up a four-pack of this one upon my return to Chicago - $10 for the four 16 oz cans, most likely at Binny's.

Until I get back to the 312, I'll be in the 212, and I'll have to give Southern Tier's Hop Sun (5.1% ABV) a go in the Wheat Ale. This summer seasonal has come up anecdotally from a few New Yorkers as a very drinkable and refreshing choice to accompany all manner of outdoor relaxation, so I'm eager to see how it holds up. With wide distribution availability in New York (they even have it at Trader Joe's), it should be easy to get ahold of a six-pack, which goes for $10. 

I'll close my list of summer go-to-beers with the one that has the single best label. Victory Summer Love's (5.2% ABV) artwork features a smile-inducing array of American summer touchstones - ice-cream cones, ketchup, sailboats, tents, fishing, and a silhouetted-slugger putting one on the board amidst the scorching summer heat. If this Blonde Ale ($11/12-pack of 12 oz bottles) is even one-tenth of the representation of summer that it's label is, it'll be the cold one you want in hand while you watch the Fourth of July fireworks light up the sky over the water.

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I hope that this list proves a useful starting point for you as you look forward to a summer of great beer. Obviously, there are dozens if not hundreds of great summer beers that I've not included (classics such as Pilsner Urquell and Bell's Oberon come to mind), but that can only mean that there are plenty more beers to discover! Sound off in the comments if you've got a favorite that you think fits well on this list - I'll make a point of trying to find a bottle of it to enjoy this summer. Enjoy!