As the temperature and the sun stay high, decks and patios all over the region are finally getting some use. Casual backyard hangouts and late nights lit with overhead string lights will become more common, especially as Memorial Day approaches. And nothing pairs with an outdoor gathering on a warm night like a cold, refreshing beer.
Switching out the cans or bottles in your beer fridge from colder-weather offerings, such as stouts or porters, can be an intimidating endeavor. Fortunately, Southwestern Pennsylvania is blessed with a plethora of creative and talented local beer makers brewing up the perfect libations to pair with a summer night.
We spoke to some local breweries about their best beers for the upcoming hot weather season — and there’s something for every palate out there, from refreshing lagers to hop-heavy IPAs to hard seltzers and even non-alcoholic options. Here are a few beverages to bring to your next barbecue.
Lagers
That can seem like a pretty general heading — after all, “lager” is one of two giant umbrellas under which most beer styles fit (the other being “ale”). Almost any mass-market beer that you’ll buy is a lager; it’s become the dominant beer style in the United States.
But that doesn’t mean they’re easy to make.
“Lagers are tricky to brew, especially at a craft level, because there’s nothing to hide behind. If that beer’s slightly off, that’s all you’re going to notice,” said Ian Staab, owner and founder of Yellow Bridge Brewing.
The brewery has been going for nearly a decade, starting in Delmont. It now has a second location in Greensburg and has expanded into food as well, focusing on pizza.
It also has a few lagers on its tap list, including an Italian dry-hopped pilsner called YB Italian Pilsner.
“We’ve also got a New Zealand dry-hopped pilsner, with hops from New Zealand that are very kind of lemony-limey-citrus. You have a nice crisp pilsner base with some additional hop notes on the aroma front,” Staab said.
At Cinderlands Beer Company in the Strip District, Lawrenceville and Wexford, a summer lineup of beers called the “Easy Course” has been introduced. Featured in the line is Amber, a toasty, smooth amber lager that Cinderlands’ marketing manager Mel Larrick described as “crushable.”
“It’s slightly malty, but still really crisp — really goes down easy and smooth,” Larrick said.
In a few weeks, All Saints Brewing Co. in Greensburg will release its Greensburg Lager, as well as a pilsner.
But if you’re looking for something with a higher alcohol content while still sitting in the accessible lager zone, All Saints’ limey Revelation is the brew for you.
“It’s really neat, but it goes down way too easily,” said Jeff Guidos, brewer and owner of All Saints Brewing Co. “It’s like a little over 9 percent and it goes down way too smoothly.”
For those looking for a starter craft lager, look no further than Trace Brewing in Bloomfield, where the Kellerbeer is a great seller all year round.
“It’s a pale lager. It’s straw in color and very approachable. It goes nicely with food,” said Aadam Soorma, head of marketing at Trace Brewing.
They also have a Czech pale lager called Tonk that they made in collaboration with the music festival Pittonkatonk, held annually in early May in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park.
Soorma said to look at breweries like Old Thunder in Blawnox and Golden Age in Homestead, local spots doing great things with this style of beer.
“They’ve leaned into this style by doing it the right way,” he said.
IPAs
Soorma said that, looking at trends, normally beer styles will have a peak and then fall again in popularity. Not so with IPAs.
“It’s definitely a style that’s still working for us,” he said.
IPAs, or India Pale Ales, are a favorite of beer aficionados. They tend to be much hoppier, more bitter and higher in alcohol content than a lager, but many contain summer flavors that make them a great warm-weather choice.
Guidos said that All Saints loves its IPAs.
“We have a nice English-style IPA, which is pretty well-balanced with malt and hops,” he said.
Even Cinderlands’ Easy Course has an IPA, designed for easy drinkability.
“We’ve got to do it for the hop heads,” Larrick quipped. “They love it, and we’re happy to brew it. It’s great. … It’s got a nice balance of sweetness to that bitterness.”
There are many different styles of IPAs, from hazy IPAs to regionally named brews, including East Coast and West Coast IPAs. Summer is a good time to explore the kaleidoscope of flavors.
Staab is a big promoter of the style.
“I’m personally more of a hop head myself, I lean more towards the IPAs. They’re fun beers to brew, and they never really go away. They’re often evolving in how bitter, how aromatic, the ABV [alcohol by volume], that kind of stuff.”
Sour beers
To touch on a different part of your taste buds, sour beers have also risen in popularity in recent years. These beers, often paired with fruity flavors, are brewed to bring out acidic flavors that make them extra refreshing for warm weather. They come in a wide variety of flavors, many full of summery or tropical tastes.
Trace Brewing tries to pour four seasonal sour beers a year, each with fruits that match the climate. The summer one is called Salva.
“It’s got mango, guava and passion fruit. It came out really good,” Soorma said. “It’s super fruit-forward and juicy.”
Yellow Bridge Brewing has a perfect “golf beer:” sour with a pop-culture-inspired name.
“It’s called What? Friends Listen to ‘Endless Love’ in the Dark,” Staab said. The name is a reference to a line from the 1996 Adam Sandler film “Happy Gilmore.”
The name makes sense, since the movie centers around golf and the beer evokes the flavors of the Arnold Palmer drink, with iced tea, peach and citrus.
“It’s super popular and really, really refreshing,” Staab said.
Some other options
Obviously, not everyone is a fan of beer, but one area of summer-perfect alcoholic beverage that has exploded in popularity in recent years is the hard seltzer. And never fear: many local breweries make those now, too.
Trace Brewing has one its calling Not Water.
“We tried to make one in-house, it’s black cherry,” Soorma said. “Our plan is to make that into a series.”
The brewery intends to use that same seltzer base with a variety of other fruit flavors.
And, of course, there are those who want the experience of drinking a beer without the booze, for any number of reasons. Non-alcoholic hoppy options are also rising in popularity, and Cinderlands certainly has your back.
“We have a non-alcoholic line called Hop Run, it’s a sparkling hop water,” Larrick said. “There are no calories, no sugar, no alcohol.”
But the beverage doesn’t skimp on flavor, she assured. “It’s really juicy, citrusy, balanced with some berry notes.”
It’s also a good end-of-night closer; she described it as “pure hydration.”
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