A Lighter Beer With Flavor

One of the original microbrewers in this country, Sierra Nevada, makes a tasty little summer lager that can be your perfect beach or lawnmower beer. Sierra Nevada makes solid-to-great beer, but they mostly stick to ale. Further, they tend to stick with relatively-hoppy ale. Their summer seasonal is neither an ale nor is it very hoppy.
Sierra Nevada makes very few lagers for countrywide distribution, as the bulk of their offerings are ales of every style, color, and strength. The 2015 version of their Oktoberfest is now on shelves, but it’s much too hot for all that malt, so I’m abstaining. But, their summer seasonal, still on shelves now, a beer worth trying, is called, easily enough, Summerfest Lager.
There’s a bit of mystery as to just what style of beer we have here with Summerfest. Sierra Nevada’s website calls it a “refreshing, pilsner-style lager.” While quite refreshing, I’m not completely certain that we have a true pilsner on our hands. The beer does contain Munich malts. I would not say this is a German Pils. Summerfest is not extremely dry and crisp, like most German pilsners, and also doesn’t have the characteristic German pils bitter aftertaste. Although, the beer is light-bodied and highly-carbonated like the German lager, the hops are not of the kind expected in a German pils either.
Sierra Nevada uses Perle and Saaz hops in this beer, which would point one toward a Bohemian pilsener. Bohemian, or Czech, pilsners offer a surprising sweet malt flavor, due to the soft, low-mineral water of the area. These lagers also almost exclusively employ Saaz hops, which bring out a peppery, piney flavor, not a bitter one. These beers are also clean and malty in the mouth, but light to medium-bodied.
Most Czech pilseners have a balanced, malty/hoppy aftertaste, but Sierra Neveda’s Summerfest has little-to-no taste in the finish. Also, Summerfest is much more carbonated than would be expected in a Czech pilsener. So, this beer is a bit of a cross between German and Czech pilsners, but is not exactly either, mostly due to less flavor, color, body and aftertaste. This brings us to light lagers.
I certainly would not call Summerfest a light American lager. At 5 percent alcohol by volume, the beer is too strong to be “light” and offers too much flavor to fit into this category. Also, no adjuncts are used in this beer, so no hint of rice or corn is noticeable like many light or standard American lagers.
One last possible home for this beer is a category called European Pale Lager. Beers such as Heineken, Stella Artois, Harp, Grolsch, and Kronenbourg 1664 fall into this group. Many countries developed pale lagers using local hops and malt, but stayed on the lighter side to compete with pilsners and other cleaner, lighter beers. Most of these are all-malt, and can be tolerable beers. If Sierra Summerfest is a Euro pale lager, it’s the best of the group.
With Summerfest, you get a touch of malt, a bit of spicy and herbal hops, a crisp and mostly clean, medium-to light-bodied beer, what more can you ask for under a scorching sun. An interesting little summer beer, Summerfest will not win any awards, but on a hot, sunny day, a few of these cold beers will do the job. Enjoy the brews … Cheers.
Gene’s Haufbrau has more than 200 beers in bottles or on tap. Gene’s is located at 817 Savannah Hwy. 225-GENE. E-mail the Beer Snob at publisher@westof.net.