Weekly Top Five - 9.Aug.11

In  High Fidelity, the characters compare their top fives in a variety of categories. Being big fans of both the film and novel, we here at the What bring you our Weekly Top Five, a feature focused on five fantastic things that you should become familiar with.

Summer Beers

 

Beer is a wonderful beverage to enjoy any time of the year. Yet I find that each year the two seasons I enjoy a cold one the most are in summer and autumn. The seasonal varieties offered by breweries worldwide between May and November are some of the best beers available. After highlighting some of the best Fall Beers last year, this year I'd like to take a look at a few summer offerings. For more information on each selection, click the link to see their pages on Beer Advocate.

5- River Horse Summer Blonde
This New Jersey beer is light, tasty, and refreshing, just as an ideal summer brew should be. While many places did not give it very high ratings, I enjoyed it several times this summer, meriting its inclusion here.

4- Brooklyn Summer Ale
I can not think of a beer from the Brooklyn brewery that I have not enjoyed. This seasonal is consistent with their regular offerings in its taste. For me, this beer replaced last year's favorite: Blue Moon Honey Moon.

3- Troegs Sunshine Pils
While Victory makes my favorite Pils, theirs is year-round and their attempt at a summer ale was lackluster. Troegs, out of Harrisburg, puts out this German-style Pilsener each summer and it was definitely a hit for me this year.

2- Flying Fish Farmhouse Summer Ale
Say what you will about New Jersey, but they scored with two beers on this list. To me, this is the quintessential summer  beer. Light, crisp, refreshing, and readily available at my local tap houses.

1- Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat
This Witbier is available year-round but truly is the perfect summer beer. I enjoyed this beer so much, that I ended up trying a lot less summer brews than I usually do on account of so often deferring to this one. This Wisconsin-brewed beer is known as "Fruity Pebbles" in my circle due to its distinct, blueberry flavor.


As I mentioned before, summer beers are some of my favorites out of the entire year. There are many, many more that merit inclusion on top five and top ten lists, and I encourage you to go out and find your favorite before the leaves change! Cheers!