Beer obsessives often face the crisis of choice. The microbrew boom and increased interest from brewers in niche styles and previously unforeseen flavor combinations provide a seemingly endless number of options for quaffing.
Sure, it’s easy to simply cycle through examples of your preferred style (you like IPAs, we know, we get it), and admittedly, even in the swelter of summer, an interesting-looking porter is hard for me to refuse.
But there are other ways to attack the beer board: alphabetically, geographically or, as in days of yore, seasonally. Some styles of beer are perfect for certain seasons (indeed, in the old days, some beers were brewed specifically for seasonal drinking). It’s not early fall without Märzen, for example, and there’s little better than a winter warmer in Yuletide. When summer is icumen in, the young zymophile turns his thoughts to the easily quaffable (yes, we heard, you like hazy IPAs, stick with me), something to sip while grilling meat or sitting poolside.
Here are five local brews to beat the heat (and yes, there’s an IPA).
Bearded Iris Manic Muse
Fruited sour, 8.4 percent ABV
Sour beers are an old style — originally, and often still, the product of wild yeast doing its magic — and can be off-putting to drinkers who aren’t used to beer with wine character. They aren’t for everybody, but for the adventurous drinker looking for something with a boat-drink character without the alcoholic oomph of a cocktail, they are perfect. Manic Muse includes all the fruit flavors of a beachside cocktail: citrus from a tangerine, pineapple, cherry and some pear (as a treat). Plus, it packs plenty of wallop on its own, checking in at north of 8 percent ABV. A bit of lactose smooths it out, adding a creamy touch. Stick an umbrella in it and crank the Buffett.Â
Jackalope Lovebird
Fruited wheat, 4.4 percent ABV
Jackalope’s raspberry-and-strawberry wheat is more or less a summer staple in Nashville now. Light in body and on the alcohol, it’s a perfect refresher for those busier days outside, tossing the Frisbee or the ol’ horsehide or paddling a local watercourse. But because it won’t drop you off before you know you got on the bus, it’s also a great match for front-porch sitting on the sultry nights with your bae. And if That Person who is always looking for a Blue Moon is coming around? Toss ’em one of these — it’s accessible to the drinker who is already familiar with wheat styles, but far more interesting than its mass-produced cousin.
Yazoo Czech Lager
European lager, 4 percent ABV
One of the best tests of a brewer’s proficiency is the quality of its pilsner. Defined by its straw color and crisp, clean taste, the pilsner and other similarly crystal-clear lagers cannot rely on an extra scoop of hops or a distracting adjunct. It’s easy to botch an IPA or even a milder pale and cover up the mistake with a heavy hand at the hop spider. There’s no such corrective measure with a style so naked. By that measure, Yazoo — one of the city’s most reliable brewers — is very good at what it does (not that you needed me to tell you). It’s on the European side of the lager spectrum, so it’s a little more Grolsch than Budweiser (or more Budvar than Budweiser, if you prefer). Consider an elevated (or Bohemian) lawnmower beer.
TailGate Pink Lemonade Shandy
Lager shandy, 5.2 percent ABV
Like Jackalope, TailGate already nailed summer with its Orange Wheat and Lime Lager, but this option — which was released in a limited run of cans but is available on draft at all three locations — has become a taproom favorite. Most shandies — bottled or made at the bar — are a simple mix of lager and lemonade (or lemon-lime soda or ginger ale or, well, you get the idea), which, of course, dilutes the alcohol of the typically already low-alc lager. At TailGate, they made a beer with lots (and lots) of pink lemonade in the mix during brewing. It tastes like a shandy (and glows hot-pink like a ’90s teen sitcom fever dream), but it drinks like a full-strength big-boy beer. Not too sweet, not too sour, and there’s nothing better than one of these when the late afternoon heat breaks just a smidge as the sun tucks behind the western hills.
Black Abbey Nice Nice Very Nice
IPA, 6.9 percent ABV
For my hopheads, here’s an IPA that fits in just fine on the red-and-white checkerboard summer cookout tablecloth. Based on the actual ambrosia salad recipe from Black Abbey’s lead brewer’s grandmother, yes, Nice Nice Very Nice is brewed with vanilla and lactose, echoing the whipped cream and marshmallow of the potluck staple. A combination of hops brings the fruit flavor — pineapple, orange and coconut. And for those who believe that IBUs are a real thing, this one checks it a respectable 29. Perhaps a bit low for the guys who like to see how far their mouths can pucker into their larynx, but the delightful dessert flavors more than make up for it.
