When it comes to seasons, none is so eagerly welcomed as summer. Fall is met with enthusiasm to wear pants and sweaters and sip hot cider, winter is met with dread for the impending snow, and overall lousy weather, and spring is met with hope because the soggy, rainy months will make way for the impending summer. That’s the season we love. The days are seemingly endless, the sun doesn’t seem to stop shining, and there are tons of refreshing beer choices.
IPAs, pilsners, wheat beers, and everything in between. They all pair well with yard games, grilling, and afternoons spent sitting on a dock at an idyllic lake with our feet dangling in the water, hoping the summer days will never end.
The six best summer beers
If you’re making a list of the best summer beers, you can’t just add a bunch of pilsners and call it good. Sure, they’d be refreshing and crisp after a morning of lawn mowing or as a great accompaniment to grilled, summery dishes. But you’d get tired of them eventually. A proper summer beer list should include a variety of summer beer styles. This includes IPAs, pilsners, wheat beers, saisons, and more.
Since summer is barreling towards us like a train fueled by hops, barley, and ale yeast, we figured now was a great time to dive into summer beers. Fear not, you don’t have to find them. We did the work for you. We found six of the best, most thirst-quenching, seasonally appropriate classic beers. Keep scrolling to see them all.
Allagash White
No summer beer list is complete without the addition of Allagash White. This award-winning, 5.2% ABV Belgian-style wheat beer is brewed with malted wheat, oats, and raw wheat. It’s hazy, lightly spiced, and balanced, thanks to the addition of coriander and Curaçao orange peel. It’s a great respite from the overly hoppy beers of summer.
Dogfish Head SeaQuench
There might not be a more aptly named beer than Dogfish Head SeaQuench. This tart, salty, very refreshing beer is a mix of Kolsch-style beer, a salty Gose, and a sweet, tart Berliner Weiss. To add even more to this ridiculous, flavorful beer, the mad scientists at Dogfish Head also add black limes, sour lime juice, and sea salt.
Schilling Alexandr
This 5% ABV Czech-style pilsner is known for its crisp, highly sessionable, balanced flavor profile. Made with authentic Czech-sourced ingredients, this popular lager is well-suited for the haziest, hottest summer days. On the nose, you’ll find bready malts, lemon peels, and floral, earthy hops. The palate continues this trend with a ton of biscuit and bready malts followed by lemon peels, grassy, floral hops, and just a hint of cracked black pepper.
Victory Summer Love
This 5.2% golden ale is brewed with Pilsner and Carapils malts and gets its hoppy aroma and flavor from the liberal use of Tettnang and Simcoe hops. The result is a complex, balanced, flavorful summer ale featuring notes of pilsner malts, lemon zest, honey, and floral, earthy, piney hops. The finish is crisp, pine-filled, and leaves you hoping you have a few cans left hiding in your fridge.
Saison Dupont
You didn’t think we’d write a whole story about memorable summer beer and we wouldn’t include at least one European beer did you? Saison Dupont is a Saison-style beer from Belgium. It’s been brewed the same way since 1844 when it was originally brewed for seasonal farm workers to drink on a hot day. It’s just as great today on a hot day with a yeasty, fruity, gently spicy palate and a dry, refreshing finish.
Lawson’s Finest Sip of Sunshine
Who wouldn’t want to drink a beer called “Sip of Sunshine” on a warm, sunny summer day? This 8% ABV imperial IPA is known for its hoppy, hazy, juicy flavor profile. The nose is all tangerine, grapefruit, and other citrus fruits, as well as dank pine. Sipping it reveals notes of tangerine, pepper, caramel malts, tropical fruits, and dank, resinous pine. The finish is prickly, hoppy, and memorable.
Bottom line
All in all, what you drink this summer is up to you. All we can do is recommend a few of our favorite summer beers. If you don’t pick up any of the above choices, your best bet is to grab a wheat beer, pale ale, pilsner, gose, saison, or something else lighter on the palate. The season is all about refreshment. You’ll be pretty happy if that’s the route you go when picking a summer beer.
