August Pick Six

Festina Pêche – Dogfish Head Brewery

• Brewery Location: Milton, DE
• Style: Berliner Weiss
• ABV: 4.5%
• IBU: 8
• Availability: June – August

Forget water or Gatorade. To quench your summer thirst reach for this perfect mix of sour and sweet. I’m only kidding of course. In these sweltering summer months hydration is key, but Festina Pêche satisfies the senses and makes your tongue and your tummy happy. Bring your nose to the brew and you get a whiff of sweet peach. That waft of fruit is a teaser of what’s to come. Being a Berliner Weisse you can expect a bit of a pucker from it’s sour character (or tart, depending on your choice of words), but your face will light up like that ecstatic sun on the label when the peach decides to join the party.

Neither flavor is too aggressive alone. And alone they are great, but together they make an impeccable summer beer. Beer in this style are sometimes served with sweet fruit syrups, but there is no need for that pairing for this neo-Berliner Weisse since the peach sugars get eaten up by the yeast. Pick up these four packs while you can! You’ll be glad you did.

Market Fresh Saison #6 Peach and Grains of Paradise – Cloudburst Brewing

• Brewery Location: Seattle, WA
• Style: Saison / Farmhouse Ale
• ABV: 5.9%
• IBU: 15
• Availability: Limited

Yes, that’s right. Two peach beers! Fruits in season are great ingredients and Cloudburst has access to some of the best fresh fruit in the country. Located just a short walk away from Pike’s Place Market they have taken full advantage of their smorgasbord of potential ingredients. This Saison is recipe number six in a series of Market Fresh Saisons.  A couple other successful experiments in the series have featured strawberry and mint (#5) as well as blackberry and juniper (#7).

Number 6 is hazy in appearance, complex in flavor, expect a smooth farmhouse unfiltered flavor at first sip. When it passes your lips its as though you’ve bitten into a juicy peach. Sweet and light sugars are matched by a peppery citrus finish complements of the Grains of Paradise. Complex but understandable. The flavors ebb in and out in waves and lends a lovely full mouth flavor.

This beer may be retired, but the Seattle brewery continues to innovate and stretch their creative minds to keep bringing eyebrow raising (in a good way!) beers month after month. Cloudburst may have only opened just this year, but already they have already generated quite the buzz. Check out their story!

The Ringer – Fulton Brewery

• Brewery Location: Minneapolis, MN
• Style: American Pale Ale
• ABV: 5.0%
• IBU: 35
• Availability: Year round

Nothing fancy, no fan fare, no gimmicks. No outrageous ingredients are needed to make this American Pale stand out. If you want to reach for a simple yet solid Pale, reach for The Ringer. It’s simplicity hoists it to greatness. Perle and Cascade hops lend a citrus aroma that entices the palate and makes the mouth water in anticipation. The malts are sweet and the hops are bitter. Exactly what is expected, but it is done so well that it’s easy to crack open another one after the first. Especially with that clean finish.