My son is home from college, so I’m drinking a bit more beer than usual. He likes those big hoppy IPAs- I don’t like them so much. To heavy for a summer quencher to me. Been drinking Spotted Cow- great beer on a hot day.
What else in that lighter style is good?
This is the style I drink year round so take what I say with a grain of salt 
Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA
Ninkasi Lux Helles Lager
Sunner Kolsch
Timothy Taylor Landlord Ale
Heater Allen Coastal
Stiegel (in a can no less!)
Anchor Lager
Augustine edelhoff
Pranqster
Weihenstephaner original
Allagash White
Ballast Point Pale Ale (actually kolsch-y)
Deschutes chainbreaker
Scott
Available in Chicago…
Bell’s Lager of the Lakes
Surly Hell
Two Brothers Prairie Path
And +1 on Sünner Kölsch
Jever
Sierra Nevada Kellerweis. Really nice Hefe.
Wits, Hefes, crisp pilsners (like Jever mentioned above) and some dry fruit flavored beers.
Cocktails mixed light on the alcohol…
Mimosa
Guilty pleasure - Ginger beer, rum or vodka, lime.
Mai Tai (I’ve never met a good mix, so they are a lot of work! Maybe Trader Vic’s with falernum mixed in, if it were an emergency.)
Margarita
Pina Colada
Bubbly with St. Germaine and one drop of grapefruit bitters.
(I guess I’m drinking all froo froo this week.)
Nothing screams Summer more to me then Gin and tonic.
Funny - was at 3 Dots and a Dash this week and sampled a few tiki drinks- was fun and delicious, for a warm summer day. Highly recommended to anyone visiting chicago !!
Great tips- thanks to all.
My favorite summer beer, intensely flavorful but just 3.5% ABV:
I love Avril, but it’s invariably skunked because of the green bottles. +1 on Sunner Kolsch. Also Fruh Kolsch, Weihenstephaner Helles, the Commons Urban Farmhouse, Upright Four, pretty much any lambic, any good canned English bitter, my own summer IPA which is about 4.5% and just uses a butt load of finish hops, so tons of hop aroma and flavor but not much bitterness. I love the idea of ISA but the commercial ones always seem too unbalanced because the bitterness is too much for the body. But yeah, I can do gin and tonics all day too.
How could I have skipped the G & T?
D’oh!
We enjoyed Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin as a mixer. Tanqueray Ten and Hendrick’s, too.
If you are drinking Spotted Cow, I would find New Glarus’s Berliner Weiss. Otherwise Westbrook or Anderson Valley’s Gose, Stillwater Classique.
Just had the Anderson Valley Gose at the Brewery this week. It’s tasty and refreshingly priced for a decent sour beer. It also has salt, making it perfect for drinking while exercising
The full name is The Kimmie, The Yink & The Holy Gose, for those of you current in Boontling.
Nothing like it - the world’s greatest Pils -
Most of the NG Berliner got pulled due to over carbonation issues. Too bad because I think this years batch was better than last year.
Bud Light Lime is nice by the pool.
Can’t tell if you are serious or being sarcastic- Bud Light is the worlds worst beer- and adding lime to it yuck.
Dofish Head Festina Peche
Stiegl Radler (grapefruit)
I was joking. However, I can think of a dozen Rogue beers where if I had a choice I’d choose Bud Light.