Ah, the first sweet sips of Summer Ale. I’ve dealt with the fact that winter is long over and soon it’s gonna be hotter’n a hoot in hell with fire sauce on top. Al Gore was right, we’ve already had a record high hot day this year, etc etc, damn. But we’ll make it through thanks to sweet, sweet Sam Adams Summer Ale.

A simply delicious beer. Complex and yet also refreshing. That’s not an easy line to walk, friends. The beer is dominated by a sweet, citrus maltiness. The hops are light and floral, with restrained bitterness. This is a very prominently “lemony” beer, but it’s not sharply sweet or bitter. The malt flavor is light and refreshing as would be expected with a good ‘ol American Wheat beer. The handsome devils also use “grains of paradise,” a type of pepper, actually, from Africa, that are said to impart a mango/peach flavor. I (sadly) don’t have a Summer Ale in my hand right now, so I can’t say fer sure, but I think I can see that. Peachiness/mangoacity, that is. What I can tell you fer sure is that this is an excellent beer, a welcome Summer tradition, and go get some.

Let’s put things in perspective… I have ONE negative thing to say about this beer and it’s not even about the brew itself; it’s about the label. It used to be so lovely! How could they switch to the boring label above from their erstwhile, lovely one here:

Man, I love this label! Summer boatin’ n beerin’… ah, a simpler time it was. A simpler, better time. Whitewashin’ and hoop-n-stick and plugs of chaw… sigh….