Best Fourth of July Beers

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Nice warm weather, sunshine, fireworks and grilled food. Must be the Fourth of July, the day we celebrate our independence from the torturous monarchy. The burgers, brats and hot dogs are on the grill, potato salad and apple pie are on the table. The sun is shining as we do a count down for the local fireworks display. Wait, something's wrong. Something's missing. Beer. Oh, yes, beer. Carrying on a 238 year old tradition of freedom, we raise our pint glasses to our founding fathers who were half crocked when they sat down and hashed out the details that would become our Declaration of Independence.

Here are some brews that we think pair perfectly well for a day of celebrating the Red, White, and Blue.

Burger Classic

This is a regional beer out of Cincinnati. It's a smooth drinking American Adjunct Lager that has a nice malt and hop combo that most Adjunct Lagers lack. It's refreshing on a hot summer day and the lower ABV will help insure that you won't get too blitzed before fireworks. This is out inexpensive beer of choice.


Bell's Oberon

 Ah, Oberon. Dear Oberon. My gateway to craft beer. It's smoother than a baby's backside, this lusty pale wheat offering from Bell's. Weighing in at 6% ABV, it's completely refreshing on one of those sweltering 95-degree-with-98%-humidity summer days that plague this side of the country.


Boulevard's Unfiltered Wheat

You know it's a good beer if you're wanting it for a nice, Summer day; but you can't have it because they don't distribute to your state. A couple quotes from our previous review:
"Perfect lighter summer beer with hints of wheat and citrus, dry finish, nice smooth mouthfeel that's as refreshing as it is smooth."
"The nose is mostly wheat, with just a hint of lemony citrus."

Founder's All Day IPA

Another great choice for summer, especially for hop heads. It's a light, sessionable IPA that's hopped to beat the heat. Founders doesn't make a brew I don't like, but this is the best session IPA on the market, in my humble opinion.


3 Floyd's Jinx-Proof 

Hopsus gazed upon the beer world and noticed that there were not enough hoppy lagers. This saddened Him. He laid out the plans to the brew gurus at Three Floyds for what became this. Hopsus be praised for this 5.1% ABV with 35 IBUs (tastes hoppier than 35 IBUs)

Founder's Rubaeus

 Instead of eating fruit or one of those vodka-filled watermelons, drink a Rubaeus. Another wonderful offering from Founders, this raspberry ale is a fantastic brew. This is also a great beer for craft beer newbies, because it doesn't taste like beer, per se. It tastes like you ate a handful of raspberries. Or drank some yummy raspberry juice. Or rolled in a bed of raspberries. If you like raspberry beers (and I most definitely do), it's hard to beat this.

Flying Dog's Doggie Style

The wonderful wizards at Flying Dog have improved on this recipe since we reviewed it. They added Simcoe and Citra hop varieties, which adds more awesomeness. This is still smooth drinking, and for those who love hops on a hot summer day (or year round like I do), do yourself a favor and get a 6-pack.

Bell's Two Hearted

This is one of our go-to IPAs, and seeing as how it has recently been ranked one of the top beers in the USA in numerous polls, it deserves a spot on our list. I, like many beer geeks, like a nice hoppy beer in the warmer months. There's something innately refreshing about drinking a well-crafted IPA on a hot summer day, and this one fits the bill perfectly.

Other brews (not fully in depth as we haven't reviewed them)
Left Hand's Good Juju
Shocked we haven't reviewed this. It's a great beer with a nice refreshing blast of ginger that's crisp, clean and thirst quenching. Perfect for cornhole with friends, pool side drinking, cookouts, pretty much any Summertime activity.

Fat Heads' Sunshine Daydream
A great session IPA that we've longed for since hearing about it. Go to your friend's house, wrangle them out of their air conditioning and do some porch drinking with this. *Review Coming Soon*

Uinta's Sum'r
We enjoyed this at a friend's house last summer. A light golden ale, it's perfect on a warm summer evening. If I recall, it's moderately hoppy and greatly refreshing. It makes me miss Tire Bite from Flying Dog, but if you can find Sum'r, do yourself a favor and pick some up.

Homestead Beer Co's Station Master Session IPA
We had this on draft at Barley's Homebrew Competition (which we were finalists in). I wanted something lighter but with great flavor. I found it with this. Huge citrus flavor with the 96 IBUs on the lighter malt backbone that clocks in at 4.2% ABV. I love what Homestead is doing; if you make it to Central, Ohio, check them out for sure.

Knee Deep's Citra Extra Pale Ale
A little heavy compared to the others on our list, but well worth it. Fantastic flavor that's mind blowing. *Review Coming Soon*

North Peak Wanderer

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Sorry for the lack of presence online lately; today was the first day in nearly a month I'd been on the computer. My father was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and as his caregiver, I've had my hands full. It's not all doom and gloom, though, never fear. We have good beer, a welcome break from caregiving duties tomorrow night with tickets to Frank Turner's appearance at the Nelsonville Music Festival, and tomorrow is the last day of school for Peanut. He's excited about the start of summer break. Let's blow the dust off the keyboard and see if my fingers remember how to operate it.

To continue on the somber note, the world lost two great and influential people today; Maya Angelou was a wonderful soul who I've had the honor of meeting a couple of times. She always came off as so kind and worldly and wise. Jack Joyce, one of the founders of Rogue Brewing, also passed away today. We wish we had one of his beers on hand to enjoy, but instead, I'll highly recommend the 7-Hop IPA, which is fantastic. Please pause for a moment and lift your pint in memory of these wonderful people.

Let's get to what's in my pint. Apparently it's been awhile since we purchased this. This is a session IPA from a fantastic brewery with a small distribution footprint. It's a beautiful clear medium orange color, and the considerable white head dissipated faster than my interest in the latest hipster fad. The aroma is.... ah crap, I hope we didn't sit on this for too long. There are a lot of caramel and toffee notes, with just the faintest hint of pine and maybe a tinge of grapefruit, but those last two are so barely discernible that I'm questioning my own sanity right now. Let's be honest, there wasn't a lot to start. Of my sanity, that is. As I take a sip, it's become clear to me that this is a drink-me-NOW kind of beer. The malts completely overwhelm any hop presence, and for a session IPA, it should be quite the opposite. There are faint notes of citrus and earthiness. There's a vague soapy note toward the back of it, like my mom caught me lying a couple of hours ago. At least the malty notes fade out quickly. It's as appropriately light-bodied for a session IPA, weighing in at 4% ABV should be.

I'm more disappointed in ourselves for sitting on this too long, rather than drinking it fresh. And yes, my fingers did kind of forget how to work a keyboard.

3.8/5 caps, but don't blame the brewery, blame us.


-Jennie

Well, Jennie has perfectly written part of Nathan's story. I figure this is part of the coping process. The day The Phil went to the ER over pain, I was coming back from the funeral of a dear friend (Dan Haley). Two days later, I learned that my mentor at work had passed away. That was all at the beginning of May. This year has been shitty. What the fuck 2014, you were supposed to be better than 2013. Your false hope brings sorrow and tragedy. A few good things that have happened this month- 1) our 3 different hop varieties are growing 2) Jennie won free passes to Nelsonville Music Fest, where we will be seeing Frank Turner 3) we've decided to do a new segment for Behind The Tap of Drinking with the Stars. It will involve us sitting down with a musician over beer and discussing beer (still hashing out details, we have at least one on board, we figure this will spread like hot cakes).

So, apparently there is a beer that needs reviewed. We're sitting on roughly 30 beers in need of reviewing. Fuck. We've sat on some for too long. This would be one. The Wanderer from North Peak. Harder to find (due to limited distribution), and I feel like the asshole for sitting on this for so damn long. This pours a nice amber color, with decent amount of white head that doesn't hang around for long, like the black sheep relative that felt obligated to show up to the family reunion. The aroma on this is malty... sweet caramel.. fuck... no hops. We sat on this for too long. FUCK! The taste of grapefruit and pine are faint on this malty palate. The back of the tongue receive more of a hop blast than the flavor. Sigh. Hops are a finicky beast. Their characteristics dies off after time, and apparently we're the biggest assholes in the world. We shouldn't honestly be reviewing this at this point. We will do another review on this (once we work on thinning out our stock), as this should be enjoyed fresh.

3.9/5 caps (read previous comments)

-Nathan-

Listen to this song... This review will make sense. No food or cheese pairings as we can fuck up anything, anything.
Music pairing: "Plain Sailing Weather" by Frank Turner