Best Summer Beers

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All cars are fast. Even the diesel Volvo I had back in the 1980s would do 90 on a straight stretch of highway ... with a tailwind. But a Mini Cooper, chipped and tuned, (Read “Soup Up Your Car With Software”) is a whole other breed of fast: zing, zoom, laugh-out-loud fast.

Likewise, all beer is refreshing. Even sipping the deep, dense, malty heft of a Traquair House Ale by the fire as sleet pecks at the window refreshes your soul, if not your palate. But a cold, hazy glass of witbier, brisk and spicy, is the kind of extra beer refreshment you need for the long, hot summer: zing, zoom, laugh-out-loud refreshment.

Here, then, is a guide to finding the right beer—beers—for the season: beach beers, grilling beers, and “man, it sure is hot today” beers. They’re not for hoisting and singing, or sipping and reflecting. Summer beers are for cold, thirst-slaying revitalization. The beers that have evolved to meet that need are enjoyable year-round, but they’re optimal for hot-weather quaffing.

To tune a beer for summer, brewers can strip it down. Putting in less malt means less alcohol, so you can safely consume a bit more. It also means less of the unfermentable sugars that bulk up the beer’s body, so the drink is lighter going down. They can add zesty hops or spices to put a quenching edge on the beer, or intentionally sour it to give it a thirst-killing tang. Fizzing up the carbonation makes things snappier.

But if beer refreshment has a turbocharger, it’s wheat. “Wheat beats the heat” is a beer-writing cliché. Fluffy wheat-built beers rely on the lighter body that wheat gives, and on the faintly citric flavor that develops in a wheat beer.

The best known wheatie is hefeweizen (“HEFF-uh-vite-zin”), from the German words hefe, meaning “yeast,” and weizen, meaning “wheat,” and that’s just what the beer is: an unfiltered wheat brew that still has the yeast in it. It’s not just any yeast, either. The traditional Bavarian-style wheat, also known as weissbier, or “white beer,” is brewed with a yeast that develops aromas of bananas, cloves, smoke, plums, vanilla … a complex and quenching blend.

Some folks like these beers garnished with a slice of lemon. A good bartender will ask your preference. Fruit on the plate is another matter: These beers are brilliant with fresh summer fruits and some cheese.

Imported hefeweizens like Franziskaner and Paulaner are widely available. American brewers do traditional versions—Penn Brewing in Pittsburgh makes a classic weiss—and also brew a hybrid style with a much cleaner yeast. These “American hefes,” cloudy and crisp, are most popular on the West Coast, where Widmer Brothers Brewing invented the style in Portland, Oregon.

Berliner weisse is another German wheat that is slowly gaining in popularity in the States. It’s got the summer beer trifecta going: usually less than 4 percent alcohol; a crisp, very fizzy wheat brew; and an intentional tartness from an inoculation with lactic bacteria. The full-on tartness isn’t for everyone, which is why bartenders often cut it with a dollop of syrup in the glass, traditionally raspberry or the herbal woodruff.

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