Summer Beer

One of the great things about beer is that it's brewed in so many different styles - so many that there's easily a style for any moment. Hot weather in Florida is more than a moment, of course - it's half the year. So while I love my Guinness and spicy ales and holiday porters, once we get to May here, it's too damn hot for too much of that.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons I'm a staunch defender of lighter beers - even the frowned-up American light lager. When it's in the upper 90s (F) and the humidity is high enough to drown a midwesterner, frankly I'm THIRSTY. I am not going to be able to sip thoughtfully on my beer. And I don't think that means I should have to forego beer. A light lager, say, a Miller Lite, tastes damn fine at the end of the hot day.

 (Somewhere, a beer fairy just died. Quick, someone open a hefeweizen!) 

BUT. There are more flavorful beers that still tread lightly across the tongue. Sam Adams Summer Ale isn't my absolute favorite, but it is carried at my beloved Publix, meaning I didn't have to make a special stop just to have a beer with dinner last night. It's kind of spicy with a teensy bit of sourness; just wheaty, I guess. I used to only drink Tucher in the summer--that is, to be specific, Tucher Helles Hefe Weizen, which I think is the standard for wheat beers. It's a great beer, if you can get it on tap somewhere that pours a lot of it. I've found it in bars that don't sell too much of it, and it tasted "off." Of course, it's good bottled.

What I've been wanting to try is a beer shandy. From what I've read on the beer blogs (most of which are British, for some reason), it's half-lemon/lime soda and half-beer. I can't decide if that sounds refreshing or nasty, but I'm intrigued never the less. It wasn't so much the bloggers suggesting it as it was commenters responding to "What are you drinking this summer?" (Post on summer beer in the Guardian's "Word of Mouth" blog by Mark Dredge, who also writes the Pencil &Spoon beer blog)

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