Beers of Summer

 Summertime is beer time. In the cold months I'm more of a wine drinker, alternating with Bloody Mary's, Gin Fizzes and my own Weird Whiskey Cocktail.  But on a hot summer day, nothing beats a cold brewski. 

Alas, those days are waning fast. And so I am moved to pay tribute to my Beers of Summer. 

Starting with Storm Chaser Summer IPA by Free State Brewery in Lawrence, Ks. It was the "Official Beer of my School Yard Drinkin" and it's still the IPA staple of my bleary, beery summer. Bonus is the artwork on the label --showing two figures in a pickup charging across an open plain into the maw of a potential cyclone.  Every midwesterner knows what it's like to come face to face with an approaching storm, whether that was their intention or not. 

Another beer near to my liver is Samuel Adams Summer Ale. Until the stores start running out of it...which they always do too soon. And then try to force the next season upon us. Sorry, I'm not going to drink "Octoberfest" beer when it's 90 degrees outside!  

   

I think the most  delicious summer beer I ever had was when I was helping my brother scrape paint off mom's garage in preparation for painting it, and the old man across the street came over on two rickety old legs and gave us each a can of Keystone Light. It was like 100 degrees outside and that beer was like an elixir of life.

As for the most memorable, that was the Coors beer I swigged on the Sunday after Old Settler's, 2015. The crowds and visitors had all gone and there was nothing left to do but sit outside the garage on a stack of old boards dad had left there years before and crack open a cold one. It had been a good party, and I just sat and drank and reflected on the events of the past several days.

It was hot as hell outside and my head was steaming but the beer was refreshing and turned my dusty woodpile by the garage into a peaceful little spot for my reverie.