Typically light in color and body, one easy quaff of these beers will clear the sweat from an afternoon behind the lawnmower, and a sixpack will have you sleeping with the air conditioning on low.
Here's three notable styles this summer.
Watermelon beer
Don't laugh - the few I've tasted are surprisingly cooling and fun, bringing to mind a picnic in the shade on a lazy afternoon. (Just remember to spit out the seeds!)
The most widely distributed is Hell or High Watermelon Wheat from 21st Amendment in San Francisco, available locally in cans.
Brewer Shaun O'Sullivan said the idea for the beer came from an old homebrew recipe of his co-founder, Nico Freccia. "I thought it was ridiculous at first," said O'Sullivan. "C'mon, watermelon beer? It was the same reaction anyone would've had."
The secret is in the ale's fermentation, which leaves behind little residual sugar. It starts out with a fruity aroma, with only a touch of sweetness, and finishes dry, so you're eager to take another sip.
There aren't many watermelon beers on the shelves, yet, but look also for Thomas Hooker's More Than A Mouthful Watermelon Ale (Connecticut), with an even stronger melon aroma, and draft Watermelon Lager from Roy Pitz (Chambersburg, Pa.).
Hefeweizen
American-brewed hefes are notoriously uneven, rarely matching the fresh, aromatic quality of the original Bavarians. Many beer experts simply call ours "American wheat ales" because they bear little resemblance to the likes of classics from Germany's Paulaner and Schneider breweries.
Sierra Nevada's new offering, Kellerweis, may be the closest to the real thing.
Its brewers believe the trick is open fermentation, a process that is the hygiene opposite of the typical sealed and sanitized brewhouse. In this traditional method, the beer bubbles away in large, uncovered vats or tubs, protected from bacterial infection beneath its thick mass of foam.
