If you’ve ever imbibed a classic, crisp Corona Extra with a lime wedge, you understand that citrus and beer were made for each other. Well, maybe not stouts, porters, and other darker beers. But lighter styles are perfect playmates with limes, lemons, grapefruits, and other citrus fruits.
Summer is the perfect time for a thirst-quenching, refreshing beer. The season is also a great time to enjoy a citrus-centric beer. The best part? Well, there are a lot to choose from. Lagers, IPAs, Gose-style beers, wheat beers, pilsners, and countless styles are flavored with citrus fruits.
The best citrus beers to drink this summer
While we could spend a whole article just writing about citrus-centric IPAs, wheat beers, or several other styles, we’d prefer to mix it up a bit. That’s why we’re going to highlight the best overall citrus beers to drink this summer. Keep scrolling to see the grapefruit, lime, tangerine, and even blood orange-based beers you’re going to want to stock up on this season.
Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin
When it comes to citrus-based beers, there aren’t many more well-known, the Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin. This award-winning, 7% ABV IPA gets its flavor from the use of Amarillo and Simcoe hops, as well as grapefruit juice. This results in a complex IPA loaded with flavors like dank pine, ripe grapefruit, and other citrus flavors. It’s tart, piney, hoppy, and totally memorable. If you only purchase one beer on this list, make it Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin.
Cigar City Margarita Gose
If you’re a fan of the popular tequila, lime, and salt-centric cocktail called the Margarita, you’ll love Cigar City’s beer take on it. Cigar City Margarita Gose begins with the Tampa, Florida-based brewery’s German-style Gose that’s already brewed with sea salt, orange peel, and lime essence. The result is a session-able, 4.2% ABV salty, tart, sweet, refreshing beer you’ll want to drink all summer long.
Boulevard Southwest BLVD
If you’ve never taken a crisp, light beer and added salt and lime to make a Chelada, you’ve never lived. Popular in Mexico, the addition of these two very different ingredients is sure to turn your average, no-frills beer up to eleven. If you don’t feel like doing the work yourself, you can grab a Boulevard Southwest BLVD. This popular summer beer is a 4.5% lager flavored with sea salt and lime. Highly crushable on a hot day, it pairs perfectly with yard games, grilled food, and good times with friends and family.
Stone Tangerine Express
With a name like Tangerine Express, you should have a pretty good idea about what you’re in for when you crack open one of these bad boys. A lot is going on with this 6.7% ABV hazy IPA. It’s hopped with Magnum, Centennial, Citra, Sterling, Mosaic, Simcoe, Cascade, and Azacca hops. But the real stars of the show are tangerine and pineapple purees. The result is a hazy, juicy, tropical fruit-filled banger that’s also heavy on dank pine. If you’re a fan of citrus and New England-style IPAs, you’re going to love this beer.
Dogfish Head Citrus Squall
Dogfish Head Citrus Squall is another beer that tells you a lot with its name. That and the fact that the folks at Delaware’s Dogfish Head are known for their pioneering, sometimes wacky, unique beer flavors. Dogfish Head Citrus Squall is no different. This 8% ABV, year-round brew starts as a double golden ale that’s combined with a Paloma cocktail consisting of grapefruit juice, blue agave nectar, lime peels, and sea salt. This creates a salty, grapefruit and citrus peel-filled flavor explosion of a summery beer.
Anderson Valley Blood Orange Gose
If you enjoy Gose-style beers, California’s Anderson Valley has multiple options. And while we love them all, we prefer Anderson Valley Blood Orange Gose the most. This highly crushable, 4.2% ABV year-round offering is brewed with pale two-row malt, malted white wheat, rice hulls, house yeast, and Chinook hops. It gets its citrus element from the use of blood orange. The result is sublime, summery wheat beer with notes of sour, tart blood orange, citrus peels, and a salty finish that leaves you craving more.
Bottom line
When it comes to summery, citrus-based beers, there are a lot to choose from. You’ll probably have a great summer if you grab some of the beers on our list to stock your fridge. But if you’re looking for a specific style, there are numerous citrus IPAs, wheat beers, lagers, gose-style beers, and sour ales available.
