For most beer drinkers, summer brings on a thirst for something a little lighter and snappier than what they might reach for in the cooler months. Beer styles such as lager, pilsner, wheat beers, and maybe even IPA, come to mind. Naturally, BC brewers rise to the occasion and have a number of offerings that fit the bill.
One of the best things about lagers in the summer is that they are best served nice and cold. On the other hand, there tends to be less scope for creativity in producing lagers, compared to ales, lending a lot of similarity from one brand to the next. One that stands out is the super-clean, nicely balanced Premium Lager from Central City Brewing, a Surrey brewpub that has just started selling beer in cans. It’s not yet widely available, so a reliable substitute is Okanagan Spring’s 1516 Bavarian Lager .
Pilsner is arguably the ‘cadillac of lagers’ and is superbly refreshing in the summer - when it’s done right. There are not a lot of BC microbreweries producing pilsners, but Tree Brewing launched their Kelowna Pilsner this year and it is nice and smooth with a light body and clean, crisp bitterness to it. And it comes in convenient 8-pack boxes.
Wheat beers can offer a nice change of pace from the standard barley fare, while still being relatively light and refreshing. A decent offering in this category is Nelson Brewing’s Liplock Summer Wheat Ale. Certified organic, unfiltered, and 4.5% alcohol, it has a nice wheaty flavour and bubbly carbonation.
For those who like a bracing smack of hops on a sunny day, the cream of the crop among widely available brands is Phillips Brewing’s IPA and Tree Brewing’s Hophead . Phillips IPA has some nice malt balance to back up the generous hoppiness, where Hophead is a more straight-up hopfest. Either one is bound to further brighten up even the
sunniest of days!
But that’s just our opinion: what BC beers do you like to drink in the summer?