An Unlikely Summer Beer

When discussing ‘summer brews’ with friends and fellow beer drinkers, one style tends to dominate the proceedings: wheat beer. This is not to say that everyone I know truly loves wheat beer, or that this style is better than any other style, summer or otherwise. It’s just that wheat beer, along with pilsner and some of the golden lager styles seem to be the obvious go-to choices during the hot months of the year.
There are several styles of beer that seem to be forgotten, especially to the general American drinking public. Either these styles are not widely available, they are brewed quite rarely, or they just don’t stand out in the landscape of the craft beer world of today. A few styles that I have attempted to find, but have almost been completely thwarted in obtaining, hail from England, and compromise the easy going group of styles many would call session beer.
The quintessential session beer style is mild. Mild is a perfect style of beer for a drinking session. And, in England, up until recently, that session would be from around 5:00 when you get off from work, until 10pm, when the pubs made their last calls. Drinking a mild for a few hours, enjoying the flavors and aromas, possibly even attaining a slight sense of well-being (a bit of a buzz), but not becoming completely drunk, that is the way of the session beer.
The original version of mild was a brown beer, possibly the young/fresh component of early ‘combined’ porter, but certainly a malt-oriented, very lightly hopped beer. In the color, alcohol strength and flavor categories, you might find the flow as such: Mild -> Brown Ale -> Porter -> Stout.
Recently, a slightly more hoppy, lighter-colored version of mild ale became fashionable, as beer drinkers tastes moved toward preference of beers with a more bitter flavor. The pale mild ale is just that, a lighter colored beer compared with the dark mild ale, with the ‘pale’ designation being a nod to the pale ales of England. By our standards, these beers would offer a very minimal hop profile, although they were similar to the “bitter” group of beers in England that were most popular during the early 20th century. Think pale mild ale -> pale ale -> IPA.
This brings us to modern day New York and the Brooklyn Brewery. Available now, the brewery’s seasonal offering Summer Ale is an interesting conundrum of the above styles. Brooklyn Brewery’s website calls their Summer Ale “a modern rendition of the Light Dinner Ales brewed in England throughout the 1800’s right up until the 1940’s” while putting the beer in the “English Style Light Dinner Ale” category.
The beer pours a deep golden to almost light amber color with a very big, foamy head atop the liquid, which leans toward pale mild ale or even English pale ale. The aroma is malt at first, which would point toward a dark mild ale, very bready, followed by the grassy hop notes. The flavors from this beer are not overly complex, but definitely not weak, as again a light, grassy hop hint leads as a barely sweet grain flavor follows.
Tough to call; a bit too thin hop-wise to be an American pale ale, but certainly not malty enough to be a brown ale. Some would call this an English pale ale, but I would put this beer in the mild category, and due to its lighter color, and a hint of fruit and hop in the taste, go with the pale mild ale distinction. At 5 percent alcohol by volume, whatever the category, Summer Ale is ready for your next session. Enjoy the brews. Cheers.
Gene’s Haufbrau has at more than 200 beers in bottles or on tap. Gene’s is located at 817 Savannah Hwy.  225-GENE. E-mail the Beer Snob at publisher@westof.net.