The Drunk Dog Days of Summer

Beer has always been brewed and consumed on a seasonal basis.  It's natural.  Birds fly, cats hate dogs, and a grown ass bearded man doesn't drink an imperial milk stout after mowing the lawn in 95 degree weather.

As natural as seasonal brewing schedules are, I thought I had a good handle of what constitutes a good summer beer, but after haunting a summer of BBQs and get togethers, I found that what I thought would be the usual warm weather culprits were as varied as styles of ale.

In my curiosity, I've been asking everyone I know, from cicerones to bros what there favorite hot day summer beer are.  Below, I will break down the groups they fall into:

A Hick on Vacation: This moniker belongs to the wonderful beverage of a PBR with a lime wedge.  Shitty beers with limes in them have always been a favorite of mine.  It's light, it's quaffable, and the lme cuts through whatever shitty beer you put it into and gives it a bright citrus lift.  This is my, as well as the majority of hard workin 'Mericans favorite grill out bevie.

The Pale Wheat: Of the craft beers, I overwhelmingly saw American Pale Wheat Ales dominate this summer.  Beers like Three Floyd's Gumballhead, Lagunitas Lil Sumpin, Sumpin, and Bells Oberon.  In America, it seems like this is becoming the big summer brew.  It's pushing out what used to be staples like Wit and Helles beers.  Mass produced lagers may dominate the world, but American Pale Wheat Ales are taking over firework filled, smoked meat summers.

IPA is a Year Round Brew: Even after an afternoon of sweaty yard work, or a few hours of slogging snow off of the driveway, a good IPA always sounds good, especially if it's session-able like Schalfly Can Sessions IPA, or Founders All Day IPA.

An American on Vacation: Kolsch has seen a huge revival this summer with national and local breweries churning out their attempt at a German staple.  This unique lager has captured the American tastebud, and it's technical brewing process has peaked the craft brewers' curiosity.  The New York Times even had an article about its popularity.  There is also the usual cadre of Witbeirs from Blue Moon to Omegang Wit to sate that sweet tangy palate.

Well, That's Weird: Finally, the surprises of the summer were Sours.  I realize that sours are becoming insanely popular and that they involve fruits, but I didn't really think that people would be so excited about killing these funky sweet tarts.  Berlinerweisse style beers are a solid summer choice.  Bells Oarsman is a six pack easy to pair with any grilled meat, or sun soaked sweat-fest.  The absolute weirdest beer I received in response was Monk's Flemmish Ale, a favorite of mine on a cool fall night, but after hauling fifty pounds of mulch... no thanks.

I realize this recent summer weather has been more conducive to a Porter than a refreshing Kolsch. If you have lived in Indiana long enough you know that this means once August is in full swing, we will be in the 90s til Halloween.

Lips of Faith: Tart Lychee

The Lips of Faith series is put together by New Belgium Brewing Company. It is an American Wild Ale with 7.5% abv and 20 IBUs. It is a blended ale that is 56% ale aged in oak and 44% ale brewed with lychee and cinnamon.

It poured a light caramel color with no head to speak of. The beer itself had a cloudy color. It had a fruit and berry aroma with a little bit of cinnamon.

Each sip was like a fruity bundle of joy in my mouth. It was sweet and sour with a nice tart cherry or raspberry flavor up front. The body of it was still tart but it had a nice oak-y backbone with hints of cinnamon. The woodiness helps to mellow out the sour flavor. It finishes off tart and dry with a lasting tanginess. It is a very well balanced sour beer.

This had a light mouth feel with almost no carbonation. It was smooth and dry. It was the perfect beer to have with Chinese food. The sweet and sour flavor matched up perfectly with my pork fried rice.

Great beer, and my wife liked it too. This is one I will look for again.

I give it a 4

Lips of Faith Brett Beer

I picked this one up on a whim. I really like a lot of what New Belgium does out there, and I am always excited to try a collaboration beer. This is part of the Lips of Faith Series as well as a collaboration with The Lost Abbey brewery. It has an abv of 7.5%

The beer poured out very light with a clear golden yellow color. It had about one inch of white fluffy head. It had a very fruity sweet aroma.

The beer was not what I expected. It had a sweet and fruity flavor with some strong bready malt taste. The fruit gave it a slight tang that made it the most mild sour ever brewed. I didn't think it was a sour until I checked their website. For a style that is so in your face this was subtle to the point of disappointing. There was however a nice, light complex hop finish that did its best to cover up the tang and additional alcohol flavor but didn't have much success. It was a fine combination of citrus and pine which finished the beer off very clean. Although the flavors were good, the beer was not very impressive.

It had a very light mouth feel to it with light carbonation. It lacked much back bone, and came off a little bit light and boring in taste and feel. The hops were light. The sour was barely noticeable and the malt was nothing to write home about. Really there was nothing exceptional about this brew.

Seriously I think I am being generous, I give it a 2

Sun King Tap Takeover

Sun King came up from downtown and took over the taps at Chatham Tap in Fishers. They brought eight beers with them and dominated the bar. 

I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was mostly the normal bar at Chatham with some taps changed out (when I went to a Bells take over they had stickers, raffles etc.). The cool thing was, Sun King brought some of their rare and hard to find beers. If you like something different this was a great event.

I had three of their beers, the Bourbon Barrel Aged Maibock, Stupid Sexy Flanders (sour), and Timmie Imperial Stout.

These are all beers that I was excited to try. I missed the Sourfest, but I heard good things about Stupid Sexy Flanders.

The Bourbon Barrel Aged Maibock was my favorite. It was 8.4% abv and 24 IBU Bavarian Spring Lager that was nine months barrel aged. It reminded me of an Oktoberfest, but lighter. The nose was basically honey and bourbon. The beer showed up with a great looking light brown or dark yellow color and a light white head. It tasted like caramel, toffee and natural honey. The bourbon mingled well with all the different sweet flavors without the usual vanilla flavor that you get from a bourbon barrel aged beer. It helped balance the whole thing out. It had a heavy alcohol finish.

I give it a 4.5

I had the Stupid Sexy Flanders next. This sour or wild ale had 5.4% abv and 23 IBUs. I have not done a lot of sours, so the review is going to be brief. I liked it a lot. The beer was a dark red to mahogany in color with no head.  It had a nice sweet and sour flavor to it that took some getting used to. It reminded me of bitter berries and red wine vinegar, but it was not very fruity. The flavor was complex and very very unique. I recommend you get your hands on it when you can.

I give it a 3.5

Lastly I tried Timmie Imperial Stout. Timmie has 10% abv and 70 IBUs. It came out in a tulip glass. It was a dark brown to black oil colored beer. It smells like heavily roasted malts and boozy alcohol. The beer started off with a very nice dark roasted flavor, not super smokey but it was nicely balanced. The malts tasted like baking chocolate and coffee. There was a nice sharp bitterness with the sweetness. I am not sure that the hops came out heavily but the beer's flavors were so well balanced it was not needed.

I give it a 4

Pooka

The Brugge Brasserie's Pooka is an American Wild Ale with 6.00% ABV.

This beer is light reddish or even pinkish in color, and quite cloudy.  The head settled fairly quickly, leaving some lacing.  There are fruity or berry notes to the aroma, as well as some tartness.

The taste starts with a nice, medium lemon and berry sourness, followed by a maltiness that still has some lemon notes, and finishing with a berry flavor and sour aftertaste.  The Pooka has a medium body, with light carbonation and a somewhat dry finish.

The Pooka is an easily drinkable sour, which I imagine most people won't find overpoweringly tart.  This is definitely one of my favorite Brugge beers, and I don't think I've ever had one of their beers that I didn't like.  In fact, my biggest complaint about the Pooka is that they won't fill a growler with it.

The Big Guy: Pooka is like a sour on training wheels. Its a great place to start if you haven't spent a lot of time with that particular style of beer.