The summer solstice is upon us: today is the longest day of 2023 for anyone living north of the equator. If pagan rituals are your thing, this is probably a big moment for you. If not, the solstice is still pretty neat. Technically speaking, the summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, or 23.5° north latitude. This will occur at noon. Of course, Peaks and Pints has summer craft beer on the brain. In case you hadn’t noticed, American craft brewing prides itself in flaunting conventions and ignoring or breaking traditions, enough so that our Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Summer Solstice might be rather ridiculous given the number of beer styles that include “summer” in their name. After all, at some point, you’re going to need to showcase some solid beer selections for that summer cookout or long lazy weekend get-together with friends that you’re already planning. Maybe one or all five of the following beers might help get your summer beer game up to par.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Summer Solstice
Urban Family Surfin’ Bird
6% ABV, draft
First, it is song written by The Trashmen in the 1950s; then the song was featured on the family guy episode, “I dream of Jesus”; now it’s an Urban Family Brewing POG sour brewed for Seattle’s Screwdriver Bar. Based on the classic juice mix, this dry-hopped sour is dosed with huge quantities of guava and passionfruit and a hefty quantity of orange zest and puree.
Sierra Nevada Summerfest
5% ABV, 28 IBU, can
The Sierra Nevada Summerfest is made with 2-row Pale, Pilsner and Munich malts and Magnum, Saphir, Tettnang, and Tradition hops. A crisp summer lager that took time off but has returned, the Sierra Nevada Summerfest also lets you know that you’re drinking a real beer. With a full-flavored tang hop kick, this pilsner style lager is another classic from Sierra Nevada. With light malts and light hops and spice, the crisp big bubbles make an excellent refreshing summertime lager. The lemon and malt aftertaste are very well balanced making this one of our favorite summer beers. Less-experienced drinkers may find the hoppy finish a tad too bitter, but they’ll come around.
Triceratops Glitter Strawberry Golden
5% ABV, draft
Homebrewer Rob Horn left New Jersey to become a firefighter at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He and his wife, Kelly, opened Triceratops Brewing in August of 2014. With the last name Horn and three awesome kids, is there really any other name? At first, they brewed out of their home garage. After thriving there for three years they opened a tasting room next to Matchless Brewing in Tumwater. Their Strawberry Golden is a classic blonde ale brewed with 20 pounds of Thurston County strawberries per barrel. Horn added strawberries three days before the end of fermentation to leave a slightly dry strawberry finish, but without losing that delicious strawberry flavor. In this version, they also added glitter.
Two Beers Deception Pass Summer Ale
5.2% ABV, can
For last year’s 100th anniversary of popular Washington park Deception Pass State Park, Two Beers Brewing released Deception Pass Summer Ale, an easy drinking and crisp pale ale brewed with 2-row and Pure Idaho malt, followed by Centennial, Cashmere, Idaho 7, and Citra hops in the kettle. Expect aroma and flavor of citrus and pineapple. Deception Pass State Park’s annual visitation rate is more than two million!
Silver City Sun Glitter
6.5% ABV, can
Gleaning its name from the radiant visual of sunlight reflected from Pacific Ocean waves at sunset, Silver City Brewery’s Sun Glitter IPA is a fusion of peach flavor with a dense, hazy malt profile and lactose sugar, yielding a deliciously creamy and vanilla-like sweetness. Dip the nose for peach and tropical flavor. It’s not a peach bomb, but rather sports bitter citrus with some peach sweetness.
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