8 Best Summer Beers to Crack Open Before the Season Ends

An ice cold glass of beer makes the heat of summer so much more bearable. (NatalyaBond/Shutterstock)

Summer is racing by, but there’s still time to get out and try some seasonal beers. While lighter beers like a kölsch or an American light lager are always satisfying, consider these special selections when you stock your fridge or fill your cooler for the next couple of months.

Great Lakes Brewing

Strawberry Pineapple Wheat

The pride of Cleveland, Great Lakes Brewing takes a summery turn with their Fruited Wheat Line. Last year’s big hit, Cran Orange Wheat, has been swapped out for Strawberry Pineapple Wheat. This is a wheat ale with added strawberry and pineapple juice concentrate, so it pours pink and offers a nice combination of sweet and tart. Their website also features recipes made with this beer, from margaritas to Bundt cake. (Cran Orange Wheat comes back in fall.) ABV: 5.5 percent.

(Great Lakes Brewing)

Schofferhofer

Hefeweizen Bier Grapefruit

A barkeep running out of beer on a hot day stretched his supply by cutting it with fruit soda. Thus, the radler was born. Schofferhofer blends their hefezeizen (wheat beer) with grapefruit for the classic radler, but also offers pomegranate and juicy pineapple. The result is another refreshing, low-ABV beer option that finds that balance between the beer taste and the citrus element. ABV: 2.5 percent.

(Schofferhofer)

Clausthaler

Clausthaler Grapefruit (NA)

This award-winning German brewery has a long history of perfecting non-alcoholic beer, and is arguably the best maker of the category. While many NA options in the market actually include the tiniest bit of alcohol (they can legally contain up to 0.5 percent alcohol by volume), Clausthaler produces ISO 0.0 percent, which, as the name suggests, has not a bit of it. ISO means “isotonic,” in this case a beverage with amounts of sugar and salt similar to that in our blood. Without the diuretic alcohol, this NA beer is a good way to stay hydrated on a sultry summer day. Now they’ve taken another sunny step and combined ISO 0.0 percent with grapefruit soda to make a thirst-quenching zero-alcohol radler. ABV: 0 percent.

(Clausthaler)

New Glarus Brewing

Imperial Radler

Wisconsin’s largest craft brewery, best known for their Spotted Cow Farmhouse Ale, released another brew in their Thumbprint Series—smaller batch beers that come and go, “brewed one time as an expression of Brewmaster Dan Carey’s love for the artistry and craft of beer making.” This is a sneaky one! While German radlers are typically low alcohol, a 50/50 mix of beer and fruit soda, the Imperial Radler goes the other direction—it’s still as refreshing as the typical radler, but packs a solid punch. Handle with care. ABV: 8.5 percent.

(New Glarus Brewing)

Terrapin Brewing

Luau Krunkles IPA

(Terrapin Brewing)

21st Amendment Brewing

Brew Free or Die Blood Orange IPA

Brew Free or Die is the brewery’s flagship West Coast-style IPA, a clear ale known for intense hoppy bitterness and piney aroma. For this fruited seasonal version, “100 percent fresh blood orange puree” is added to the brew, which is also dry-hopped with Mosaic, Chinook, Centennial, and Amarillo hops, giving it a bit more citrus flavor. This pairs nicely with meats on the grill. ABV: 7 percent.

(21st Amendment Brewing)

Pilot Project

Donna’s Pickle Beer

Perhaps this sounds as weird to you as it did to me, but a pickle beer does make some sense. There’s a thousand-year-old precedent for the idea: gose (GO-zuh), a traditional German beer style that includes lactobacillus in its fermentation process, which gives it tart and sour flavors much like the lactic acid produced in a traditional pickle, and a bit of salt, which also recalls pickle brine. So yeah, this pickle beer—made by mixing pickle brine with an American lager—isn’t much of a stretch. I tried it at a bar with fellow doubters-turned-believers, and we found it was even better with an extra splash of pickle juice. Have a can of pickle beer in the cooler while you’re out enjoying pickleball. ABV: 4.7 percent.

(Pilot Project)

Rhinegeist Brewing

Acoustic Glow Fruited Sour

This is a highly refreshing, light, golden beer with additions of lime, grapefruit, and a pinch of salt. Old traditional sour beers took months or years to age and develop their intended flavors, while the modern “kettle sour” is soured by using lactobacillus in the wort before the boil. To have the best control over the final result, the brewers add lactic acid directly to the brite tanks (where finished beer awaits being served or packaged). The tart fruit is front and center, but the beer finishes crisp and clean. ABV: 4.5 percent.

(Rhinegeist Brewing)