Summer Solstice

Now that the temperature has reached 115 degrees, now that we've had our Christmas in July beers on and now that the Papago Open is over I think it is safe to say that the summer is officially here and half way over already. Along with summer comes a new line of seasonal beers, appropriately named summer beers.

Summer beers originally began in Europe with Belgium Saisons and Bavarian Mai-bocks centuries ago. The Belgian's being creative and not afraid of wild yeasts and micro flora that flourish in the summer months used the seasonal change to make their Saison. Saisons can have all sorts of different flavors in them but most tend to be somewhat fruity and may be a little sour. The German Bavarians on the other hand before refrigeration became available used to ban beer making in the hot summer months because they wanted a cleaner tasting beer. Mai-bocks were the last beer that they were allowed to brew in the summer except for wheat beers that could still ferment cleaner at a higher temperature. Mai-bocks are strong malt flavored beers with light hoppiness. I think we would all agree that German style Hefeweizens and Belgium Wit beers go down very well here in the hot summer months. There are too many of these good wheat beers to mention by name but I like the beers from Weihenstephan and Hacker Pschoor a lot. I personally find the Belgium Witterkke Rose beer that just came out to be a little too sweet for my taste buds but I have found that it is a good beer to mix with other beers such as the regular Witterkke Wit or Papago Orange Blossom to give them a nice Raspberry fruit taste.

Here in the good old U.S.A. craft brewers release summer beers from May to September. They are for the most part the exact opposite of the beers we featured with our Christmas in July, which were predominately big, malty, highly hopped, somewhat spicy and packed full of flavor and alcohol. Summer beers tend to be lighter, less hoppy, some are fruity and most have less alcohol. Many are wheat based, such as our own Orange Blossom Ale or Anchor's Summer Ale but are totally different than German Style Wheat beers. This year we are seeing some pilsners coming out of some craft brewers for a change. Full Sail just came out with their Session beer, Sierra Nevada has their Summerfest beer and Anderson Valley has released their Summer Solstice Cerveza Ale which are all light Pilsner style beers. These Pilsner style beers are what are also known as lawn mower beers because they do a great job of quenching the thirst if you are unfortunate enough to have to mow the yard here in the summer. They are also pretty refreshing around a great summertime BBQ or a dip in the pool so enjoy the heat, and the beers associated with it while you can.

Prost, Ron