Summer Beer

Yesterday it hit 106° in Tucson. Porter-drinkin' weather this ain't.

When it's so hot out that it hurts to breathe (and please don't start with the "it's a dry heat" nonsense...only people who don't live here in the summer say that...when the ambient temperature is higher than physiological temperature, you feel it) lesser mortals are often tempted to forgo flavor for sheer cooling ability. They head for "lite" beer.

Might as well drink water. (Which is not a bad idea, anyway.)

But when it's time to drink beer, real beer drinkers still drink real beer. Beer can be flavorful and refreshing. Recent offerings at the Tucson Chapter of the SudsPundit Lounge (aka, our patio) include:

--Session Lager from Full Sail. Proving that short and stubby can be beautiful, Session lives up to its name by combining solid flavor with sheer drinkability. This is the kind of beer our grandparents drank before we went crazy.

--Bridgeport Supris (that's "su-PREE", but don't give your bartender a hard time about it) I've already covered, but it bears repeating. The Big Lebowski of beers, I like this more and more every time I go back to it.

--Polestar Pilsner from Left Hand is, in my opinion, the closest thing I've had to a great German pilsner from an American brewer. Grainy and grassy, with a lovely aroma of noble hops. Bready in the back of the throat. Most importantly--and this is what sets the Germans apart from most of their American imitators--is the gravity-defying head retention. It pours HUGE and maintains all the way down the glass, keeping the aromas nice and stirred up for your nose with every pull. This one, as in Germany, is best when not ice-cold.

--Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema from Anderson Valley defies all notions of what summer beer ought to be, and does so in style. A copper ale with spice and hints of vanilla, this one just flat-out works. I had my first one last night, but I look forward to seeing how it pairs with burgers from the grill.

So...what's your favorite summer beer?