Sip into the season with these breezy summer beers.
Blue Mountain Brewery’s sample pack, featuring Drink a Peach!
Summer is here, the beach bag is packed, the sunscreen has been liberally applied. But what’s the right brew to sip while you put your toes in the sand?
“Beers both lighter in color, body, alcohol content, and calories seem to be the order of the day for this summer,” says Taylor Smack, founder of Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton. “There is still a niche inside the broadening craft beer world for big IPAs and barrel-aged, high-alcohol beers, but you can’t drink them all the time, and summer seems to lighten everyone’s palate.”
Smack recommends Blue Mountain’s Drink a Peach!, which is released every year in late spring both on draught and in variety 12-packs. “Summertime, lightly sour beers are a subset of lighter body/lower alcohol beers that can also fit into this trend,” he explains.
At Devils Backbone in Roseland, COO Hayes Humphreys says, “The trends we’re seeing are toward beverages that are light on the palate, but not on the taste buds. Especially in the summer, Virginians want to be outside, with friends, drinking beers that are full of bright flavors and that they can enjoy all day.” Summer releases include Loved By The Sun, “an easy drinker bursting with peach and mango flavor that comes in a can that changes color when you take it out in the sunshine,” and Bright Tangerine and Bright Pineapple, “sparkling fruit ales with just 85 calories and 2 grams of carbs per can.”
