Some New Summer Brews

Tomorrow marks the start of June. Named after the Roman goddess, Juno who was the goddess of marriage, and thus June being the traditionally preferred month in which to get hitched. Depending on how you view the seasons, either summer begins late next month or perhaps you celebrate Midsummer's Day on the solstice. Either way, the weather outside is warming up and we'll be in need of refreshing beer. Here's a look at some summer seasonals from local breweries.



Capital's Fest beer is now available. Unlike a lot of breweries' summer seasonals, this beer is all malty goodness.

The Viking Brewing Company has two varieties of summer suds for June.



The Lime Twist is a wheat beer with lime. I'm not the biggest fan of personally don't care much for lemon or lime in my beer and, if I must have it, I prefer to have it fresh from a piece of the fruit. So I'm a bit weary of Lime Twist though I'll admit I've never had it. Queen Victoria's Secret is an India Pale Ale. IPAs were invented in the late 18th century by English brewers who needed to get ale to countrymen in the far corner of the Empire in India. Beer would spoil during the long voyage east so brewers jacked up the hop and alcohol content so the brew could make the trek. And thus was the IPA born.



Sand Creek Brewing is advertising their new Wild Ride IPA as being available soon. I'll be keeping an eye out for it.



Falls Brewing has an IPA as well called Fuggled Up IPA. The name comes from the brewer's use of fuggle hops, an English variety. I'd never heard of them until I read about this ale. Definitely want to try the stuff out.



City Brewery in La Crosse also have a Pale Ale but theirs is an American Pale Ale. APAs use American hop varieties which tend to have citrus characteristics and this generally distinguishes Yankee pales ale from their brethren in the UK.



Out east in Milwaukee, Lakefront gives us their White Beer. It's their version of the Belgian wit which is a wheat beer that is flavored with orange and coriander.

Lastly, local micropub J.T. Whitney's is serving up their Heartland Weiss ("traditional German Wheat Beer with spicy notes of clove) and Badger Bill Wit ("A Belgian style wit ale that is light and crisp with classic notes of coriander and orange peel).

On Sunday I threw a little bash and had friends over for a cookout and suds. I decided to try some brews I'd never had before: Pangaea Lilja's Pulling Boat Pale Ale, Leine's Sunset Wheat, and Hausmann's Pale Beer. The Pangaea was tasty though I admit that I was expecting (and hoping) for a bit more hop bitterness. I thought it would be a good choice for introducing someone who is only familiar with American lagers to the IPA. The new Leine's variety was mediocre. Since it was a hot & sunny day, I found it to be quite refreshing - in the same way soft drinks are. The orange was very prominent; so much so that it was kind of like drinking Tang. I found it to be fairly heavy, indeed, almost syrupy. Finally, the Hausmann's. It wasn't bad but it was certainly nothing special. To me, it tasted like Old Style. Very watery and only faint traces of grain flavor. It went down smoothly and was refreshing, to be sure, but it's nothing more than a thrist quencher on a hot day.