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Beer Guide: Best Summer Seasonals

Hot weather, cold beer. Drink all summer long with these summer seasonals.

Starr Hill Grateful Pale Ale 
Crozet, Va.

Can you say citrus? Grateful is Starr Hill’s twist on the American Pale Ale, with the light body you’d expect, but a wallop of Chinook and Cascade hops for a kick of citrus aroma. Surprisingly, there isn’t much of the bitterness you might expect from that combo. And at just 4.7 percent, it’s totally sessionable on a hot day.
starrhill.com

Wild Wolf Ginger Lager
Nellysford, Va.

Like a lager on a hot day? Don’t be ashamed. Particularly not when that lager has ginger and citrus notes and an effervescent body like this one. Sexy.
wildwolfbeer.com 

Hardywood Park Virginia Blackberry
Richmond, Va.

If you like a little sweetness in your beer, this one’s worth the wait (Virginia Blackberry doesn’t hit the taps until late summer). More than 1,000 pounds of Virginia-picked blackberries go into each batch.
hardywood.com 

Three Brothers Brewing The Great Outdoors
Harrisonburg, Va.

Three Brothers bucks the trend of overly-hoppy pale ales by creating The Great Outdoors, a more mellow, sessionable pale ale designed with thirsty mountain bikers in mind.
threebrosbrew.com 

DC Brau El Hefe Speaks
Washington D.C.

This light, aromatic beer hits the classic hefeweizen high notes, offering a hint of banana and a creamy finish thanks to the heavy carbonation.
dcbrau.com 

Pisgah Brewing Blueberry Wheat
Black Mountain, N.C.

The blueberry is just present enough to justify the name of this refreshing wheat beer. Consider this the fruit beer for people who don’t like fruit beer.
pisgahbrewing.com

The Wedge Witbier
Asheville, N.C.

No tricks, no twists, just a shining example of a traditional witbier with coriander and orange peel spices, made for drinking by the river on a hot summer day—a perfect reason why the Wedge sits on the French Broad.
wedgebrewing.com 

Chattanooga Brewing Company Imperial Pilsner
Chattanooga, Tenn.

CBC’s flagship Imperial Pilsner is a bit hoppier than the pilsners you might be used to, but it’s still light and supremely drinkable. Technically, it’s not a seasonal, but it drinks like one on a hot summer day after a Tennessee River session.
chattabrew.com

Olde Mecklenburg Brewery Rein Pale Ale
Charlotte, N.C.

Don’t look for fruit or additives in any OMB beer. They use nothing but water, malt, hops, and yeast. The result with the Rein is a low-hopped, crisp pale ale made for hot N.C. summer days.
oldemeckbrew.com 

Fullsteam Brewery Cackalacky Ginger Pale Ale
Durham, N.C.

It’s a brand new year-round offering from one of the most progressive breweries in the South, and it uses Chapel Hill’s Cackalacky hot sauce. Expect a supremely drinkable, and supremely North Carolina, pale ale.
fullsteam.ag

Check out the rest of our Southern Brew Guide!

 

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