At the beginning of spring, it can sometimes be a challenge to find a good time and place to enjoy the outdoors. You may end up spending much of your time indoors, which is understandable were it not for this article. Aside from the obvious water, which clearly you should drink plenty of, especially if you’re hanging out outside, let’s go over some crispy beers you can bring with you to sip on and stay refreshed this spring! You’re welcome.
The first beer I want to cover is a witbier, or “white beer,” which gets the name from the pale color and light cloudiness of the beer due to it being unfiltered. The Avery White Rascal is an American beer of a Belgian style and like other witbiers has a high amount of wheat and other flavors such as orange, lemon, and coriander. In my experience, anyone who drinks Blue Moon will love this beer. There are plenty of comparisons one could make between the two, but White Rascal has more flavor and spice to it, so it’s definitely worth a try if you want something wheaty and refreshing to kick off the new season.
Next up is a hefeweissen, which is a German-style beer similar to a witbier. The “hefe” means “with yeast” and gives the beer a similar cloudy look and wheat-centric base. The difference here is that a hefe usually has a different flavor profile which can include banana, clove, and bubble gum. Quick note for those curious, it’s basically pronounced [hef-uh-vise-in]. The Weihenstephaner Hefeweissen is an awesome beer with all the classic aspects of the style. Weihenstephaner is the world’s oldest, continuously running brewery in the world which began brewing in the year 1040 and has not stopped since. Their one-thousandth anniversary is coming up in a couple of decades in 2040, which cannot be said for many companies, so that’s amazing. Their hefe is a refreshing beer I recommend to anyone looking to try something new on the light end of the beer spectrum. It’s not a fruity beer, but it does have that banana flavor that is one of the top reasons for its ongoing popularity.
Switching gears a bit, there’s a wildly popular, albeit difficult to acquire, American pale ale you should pick up if you stumble across it this spring. 3 Floyds Zombie Dust is one of the highest-rated APAs out there, and it’s very reasonably priced if you can find it. Zombie Dust has a floral aroma with a bit of citrus but with a strong hop and backbone to remind you this is, in fact, a pale ale. Easily drinkable and tasty enough to make you wish you had more, this is one of those beers that people talk about long after it’s gone.
Decadent Ales in New York has recently been putting out a lot of weirdly impressive beers, such as the Toasted Marshmallow IPA and the S’mores IPA. I was able to get my hands on the Pacific Punch the other day, and boy, oh boy, was I glad I did! Orange, pineapple, strawberry, peach, mango, and I could go on. The word party doesn’t do it justice; there’s a fruit festival in this beer. Even though this is a very fruity beer, it’s still a double IPA, so for anyone who doesn’t like hoppiness or bitterness in their beers, I would not push this one too rigid in your direction unless you’re willing to venture into the gray area between the two styles of beers.
Having said all that, I do want to reiterate my earlier point that spring is upon us and it is an excellent opportunity to experiment with lots of new drink options. It seems daunting with all the weather changes and allergy season coming back, but hopefully something in this article piqued your interest, and hopefully you will be a little more prepared to take on spring one sip at a time.
-by Dani Jo Black
