Picture it – it’s the dead of summer, you’re outside enjoying the weather, and the sun is beating down upon you. When you need to rehydrate, what are you reaching for? Most likely an ice-cold lager. Chances are, your fridge, your cooler, are full of them. Bonfires, summer get-togethers, pool parties, yard work – it’s just common knowledge that lagers are the most refreshing summertime brew. Why is that?
While we are conditioned to associate lagers with the summer season, the answer is both psychological and physiological. Lagers are light-bodied, highly carbonated, and clean, which makes them especially refreshing when you’re hot and sweaty. When your body’s craving hydration and relief, a crisp lager satisfies both your thirst and your taste.
Research says that the cool temperature of ice-cold lagers triggers thermoreceptors in your mouth and throat, thus giving you a cooling sensation. As your sense of taste and smell dull slightly due to dehydration and heat fatigue on hot days, lagers are easier to process. They are also typically highly carbonated, which contributes to a perception of refreshment due to the carbonic acid stimulating your trigeminal nerve. Lagers rely less on aroma complexity and more on texture, carbonation, crispness, and finish, attributes that remain highly perceptible even when olfactory sensitivity declines during the summer. Because trigeminal sensation remains robust during heat stress, carbonation continues to provide a vivid sensory experience even when aroma perception is reduced.
After reading way too much medical research online to support my theory, something I never thought I’d be doing when I started writing about craft beer, I wanted to gather some real-world thoughts on why lagers taste better during summer, so I turned to the experts. And by experts, I mean the people behind my current favorite local lagers – Smoldered Society (Strike Anywhere), Resurgence Brewing (Bridge Pilsner), Buffalo Olde Brewery (Lovejoy Lager), Buffalo Brewing (Simon Pure), First Line Brewing (Everyday Lager) and 42 North Brewing (Solshine).
Illumination Pilsner was one of the very first beers I drank when 42 North Brewing opened, and while no offense is meant towards it or their Craftsman Lager, my current favorite crispy from the East Aurora brewery is Solshine, a helles lager brewed with sweet orange peel and tangerine, one of my absolute favorite beers to consume while floating around in the pool.
“I tend to think lagers taste great all year round,” 42 North owner John Cimperman said. “That said, I do tend to drink more of them in the summer. And the beauty of a lager coming in around 5% is, you can toss back a few. Crisp, refreshing and a perfect way to beat the heat. Before, of course, you throw back a few IPA’s.”
I’ve long posited that Buffalo Olde’s Lovejoy Lager is one of the most slept-on lagers in all of Western New York. It’s also one of my favorite beers to drink at a beer festival because, not only is it thoroughly refreshing, it’s a well-built beer. When I asked Buffalo Olde head brewer Tom Dargen for his thoughts on my lager theory, he offered something of an interesting take.
“I did recently hear an NPR story about how to manage extreme heat where the expert interviewed said drinking light beer was as hydrating as water, and by that he meant lighter lager, which I assume you are referring to as well,” Dargen said. “I love that clean, crisp, beer-flavored beer is having a bit of a renaissance. Who wants to drink another enormous IPA that tastes like bong water on a hot summer day?”
Resurgence Brewing’s owner Jeff Ware has a bit more of a straightforward take.
“Nothing better than a cold refreshing beer on a hot day. Match made in heaven. Like a beer and hot dog at a baseball game!” Ware said.
Russ Haentges, head brewer at Orchard Park’s First Line Brewing, said that it is lager’s simple nature that makes them a go-to choice for summer when you’re reaching into your cooler.
“I suppose I should start by asking you: in which season does a lager not taste delicious?” he said. “Because lagers are straightforward nearly 99% of the time, they are especially attractive during the summer. The light, refreshing, crisp, and simple nature of the style makes it a natural go-to in the heat. I also feel we are finally turning a corner, with lagers becoming the preferred choice as the hazy IPA craze begins to settle.”
Buffalo Brewing Company is making some of the best lagers in Western New York right now, and it is largely due to their successful revival of the Simon Pure line and Schreiber Brewing’s Manru line. As owner and head brewer John Domres told me recently, BBC makes “old man beers,” and they are doing it pretty damn well in my opinion. While he says part of the reason why lagers are so closely associated with summer is psychological, there is science behind it, which I found out during my research for this article. The science does actually exist.
“Lagers simply taste different during the summer,” he said. “They are cold, crisp, clean, refreshing, and usually not too heavy. When the weather is hot, you don’t want something overly sweet, boozy, or filling. Instead, you prefer something cold with good carbonation and a clean finish. Part of the reason for this preference is likely psychological. Cookouts, patios, baseball games, yard work, and ice-cold cans all evoke a sense of lager season. In essence, lager embodies the essence of summer in a glass.”
According to Smoldered Society’s Cameron Frank, lagers are built for summer because they can be full-flavored, but not overly heavy. Plus, they are pretty much untouchable when it comes to day drinking.
“Summer offers a special opportunity for these beers to fucking rip. Built for longer sessions, the (traditionally) lower-ABV, crisp, refreshing characteristics of lager complement the warmer months all too well,” Frank says. “Lagers offer the craft beer drinker an opportunity to enjoy something full-flavored, without the filling nature of hop-saturated and/or high-gravity beer. In addition, you can drink 4 or 5 pints without getting annihilated.”
In conclusion, hot weather changes human sensory perception. Lagers are uniquely engineered, through high attenuation, elevated carbonation, clean fermentation, moderate alcohol, and cold service, to match the physiological state of someone experiencing heat stress. While lagers are psychologically associated with summer, they are biologically optimized to feel more refreshing.
So, why do lagers taste better during the summer? It’s just science.
Brian Campbell is co-founder and Brand Manager of the Buffalo Beer League, and writes the weekly Buffalo Beer Buzz column. If you have beer news that should be included in the Beer Buzz, Brian can be reached at brian@buffalobeerleague.com, on X (@buffbeerleague), Instagram, Threads and Untappd (@buffalobeerleague), and Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague).
