This weekend is the official beginning of summer. It’s time to fire up the barbecues and do some day drinkin’. With that, there’s a very good chance a lot of us are going to be drinking a beer or two over the next three to four days. And if you really want to survive any day full of sudsy beer, it’s probably best to embrace low ABV beer.
Low alcohol beers are your best friend if you’re day drinking. The vast majority of beer tends to be around five percent alcohol by volume. Low ABV beers — sometimes called “session beers” — are the beers that are under five percent. Before we go on, yes, that is most light beers and the lion’s share of Adjunct Lagers from Miller High Life to Corona.
We’re not talking about those gold standards today. We’re talking about deliciously tart Berliner Weisse, malty Hefeweizen, and old school Pilsners. These are the beers that fall in the two to four percent range and, yes, you can drink these ones all damn day (just don’t drive afterward, please).
Guinness Draught (4.2%) — Guinness
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Guinness may feel like a beer you should be drinking fireside in an Irish pub on a cold winter day. But have you tried it in the summer? It’s damn near perfect for a backyard bbq or relaxing poolside.
The Irish stout has a little heft to it, so you’ll feel like you’re drinking a big beer here. But, the ABVs clock in at a very sessionable 4.2 percent. That means you can drink Guinness all day. Or, at least, until someone breaks out a bottle of whiskey.
Pilsner Urquell (4.4%) — Plzeňský Prazdroj
Pilsner Urquell is the nectar of the beer gods. The slightly bitter and sweetly malty Czech lager goes down almost too easily. This is the perfect beer to serve to your beer snob friends who’ll inevitably turn their crafty noses up to a can of Miller High Life or PBR. This beer never disappoints.
Slow Ride Session IPA (4.5%) — New Belgium Brewing
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New Belgium has a deep roster of great beers. Their Slow Ride Session IPA is a bit of an outlier as IPAs tend to be on the higher side of the ABV scale. With Slow Ride, you’re getting the fruity hoppiness and dankness without the knock-you-out alcohol kick. It’s kinda the best of both worlds.
Berliner Kindl Weisse (3%) — Berliner Kindl Brauerei
If you love malty, almost creamy sour beers, then you need to give the ol’ Berliner Kindl Weisse a try. This one will be a little harder to find around the US but it’s not impossible. And it’s always worth the hunt. The three percent ABV (!) means you can almost literally drink this one all day without getting “fall over drunk” with the added benefit of little to no hangover the next day.
Just go easy on the sugary shots that often get put in this style of beer. Embrace the tart!
Hallo Ich Bin Berliner Weisse (3.7%) — Mikkeller ApS
Mikkeller over in Denmark is dominating the high-end craft beer scene right now. And with reason, their beers tend to be from great to amazing more often than not.
Their Hallo Ich Bin Berliner Weisse is a great example of the style. Where the Berliner Kindl version feels like an old-school classic, this one feels like a new take from the next generation of great brewers. It also comes in an array of great fruit flavors that’ll surely satisfy the pickiest of backyard revelers.
Narragansett Del’s Shandy (4.7%) — Narragansett Brewing Co.
Shandies are the perfect summer drink. Back in the old days, this was simply a lager with either 7-Up, orange soda, or Coke cut with beer. Today, a lot of shandies are brewed with the citrus right in the beer to cut the sugar content down (a bit).
Del’s from Narragansett is a great place to start your shandy journey. Throw a case of these in a cooler and they’ll disappear faster than every other drink at the party.
Summer Shandy (4.2%) — Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company
Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy is another great option if you’re heading to shandy-town. The beer has a little less of the harsh lemon tartness and leans a bit more toward malty sweetness. Still, you’re basically looking at delicious beer-like lemonade here. Translation, it’s super refreshing on a hot day.
Serendipity (4%) — New Glarus Brewing Company
This wild fermented sour ale is spiked with local apples, cranberries, and cherries giving it a fruit Geueze like feel. Every time you crack one of these bottles open, you’ll feel like you’re in a sunny fruit orchard lounging in the shade of a swaying tree. It’s summer-y, tart, and just the right amount of stone-fruit sweet.
Otra Vez (4.5%) — Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Otra Vez is a Gose that’s been spiked with California prickly pear and grapefruit to amp up the tartness with a nice balance of malty and fruity sweetness that is never too sugary. If you’re looking at triple digits this weekend weather-wise, get some of these bottles cooling down immediately. You’ll need a beer this refreshing.
Gose (4%) — Westbrook Brewing Co.
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Westbrook brews one of the better German Gose on the market. The sour wheat beer has a strong hit of salt and coriander that’s perfect for a seaside excursion. Get some sand between those toes and pop a bottle of Gose and you’ll be set.
Lindemans Pêche (2.5%) — Brouwerij Lindemans
Lindemans has a wide range of great Lambics spiked with fruits. We’re going with their ‘peach’ because nothing says summer like a bushel of juicy peaches. The sweetness of the peach is a great counterbalance to the slight tartness of the ale underneath.
This one also is an amazingly low ABV of only 2.5 percent. You can literally drink this one all day.
Schell’s Hefeweizen (4.75%) — August Schell Brewing Company
German Hefeweizens tend to be around the five to six ABV mark. American Hefes, on the other hand, often (not always) linger in the four to five ABV area, making them very sessionable.
Schell’s Hefe is a good place to start with the malty, sweet beer that’s super refreshing and very quaffable. If you’re not in the Midwest, check out your local micro scene and grab a Hefe from your favorite hometown brewer. Either way, you’ll be drinking a great beer for every summer day.
