Food & Drink: Sip into the season with N.W. summer beers
Local brewers, those around region take light, crisp approach to brews
By Rachel Pinsky
Published: June 14, 2019, 6:05am
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An endless row of mead, beer, cider, wine and sake at Ben’s Bottle Shop. Photo Gallery
We’re in the midst of the season for Dad beer, lawn mowing beer, beach beer, barbecue beer, hiking beer — that light, low ABV (alcohol by volume) stuff you drink on a hot day to quench your thirst and get a mild buzz.
Local brewers are crafting kolsches, lagers, sours, saisons, session beers (ABV 5 percent or under) and (of course) hazy IPAs for the perfect summer sip. A cold pint of 54?40′ Brewing’s Kascadia Kolsch-style Ale is an excellent summer beer that pairs well with food (pizza, barbecue, burgers, sausages). Mt. Tabor Brewing’s Lamp Post Lager, with its low ABV (4.5) and its crisp, slightly citrusy flavor is an excellent thirst reliever. Enjoy the great outdoors by sipping Grains of Wrath Brewing’s Luger (a German-style pilsner) on the sunny deck area in front of their brewery in downtown Camas.
Heathen Brewing’s Mojita Sour Ale with mint and lime is refreshing and may convert cocktail drinkers to beer lovers. If you dig sours, it’s worth a trip to Brothers Cascadia Brewing for their Sour Siesta — a tamarind sour ale collaboration with Little Conejo.
Many of you will stick with your favorite for any season — hazy IPAS. Some local favorites are Orange Whip (5.9 percent ABV) from Fortside Brewing (which is always in my fridge at home) and Trap Door Brewing’s Glowed Up (6.5 percent ABV).
Ethan Edwards, general manager at Ben’s Bottle Shop, has summer beer recommendations from around the world and across the river. Edwards is surprisingly pro-Shandy. I mistakenly thought that a beer aficionado, like Edwards, would frown upon mixing a citrus soda with beer.
“If you’re out riding your bike, it will get you home instead of putting you to sleep,” he said. He recommends Steigl’s Radler Grapefruit — a mix of grapefruit juice soda and beer made by Steigl in Salzburg, Austria (2.5 percent ABV) — as well as a 50-50 blend of wheat beer and pomegranate juice from German brewer, Schofferhofer (2.5 percent ABV).
Edwards also recommends “light, pale beer with a low ABV. A German or Czech pilsner will get you there.” Flensburger makes a light, smooth pilsner (ABV 4.8 percent) sold in their classic flip-top bottles. For a domestic pilsner, Edwards chose Breakside’s simply named Pilsner (ABV 5 percent). He also recommended sours: “They have a lower ABV, and it hits you like drinking a lemonade.”
Saisons are good summertime beers.
“Historically, they were brewed by farmers to give to their workers in the summer,” Edwards said.
Upright Brewing’s Special Herbs (a spelt-based saison with lemongrass, hyssop, Sichuan peppercorns and two varieties of orange peels aged in wine casks with wild yeasts, ABV 5.7 percent) has a nice floral, herbal scent and taste. He also endorses classic warm-weather picks — “IPAs, hazies for sure” — like Fort George’s Skies of Wonder (ABV 8.7 percent) and Fields of Green (ABV 7.6 percent) and Matchless Brewing’s east-west IPA mashup, Where the Highway Ends (ABV 6.7 percent).
To get summer beer on tap, visit the local breweries listed on the Brewcouver website (www.brewcouver.com, where you can download their app) or check out the list on the North Bank Brewers Alliance website (www.northbankbrewers.com). You can also sip from Ben’s Bottle Shop’s extensive tap list. If you’re looking for an interactive summer beer experience, Ben’s (voted best beer bar in the state of Washington on craftbeer.com) has a number of beer-related events coming up.
Rachel Pinsky can be reached at couveeats@gmail.com or follow her on Facebook and Instagram @couveeats.
If You Go
What: Ben’s Bottle Shop
Where: 8052 E. Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver (The Mill).
Hours: Noon to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, noon to midnight Friday and Saturday
