Tuesday Top Ten: Summer Beers

I'll be honest, I'm a bigger fan of dark beers and winter beers than I am of light beers and summer beers, but I still enjoy the latter. There is nothing like sitting on a porch, roofdeck, bar patio, boat, or gazebo while sipping on a cold beer and just going to town with some chick. Here are my favorite ten summer beers.

10 (tie). Bud Light and Coors Light
Many people poo-poo Bud Light and Coors Light. They are not my favorite overall beers, but they are still beer and they serve a purpose. In the summer, oftentimes you just want the lightest beer available. Both of these go perfect with cornhole.

9. Corona
Admittedly, it's not a fantastic beer, but there's just something about drinking a Corona with a lime during the summer that makes me feel like an American. Yes, I fully realize the irony of that statement.

8. Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy
Half-beer and half-lemonade, this is like a radler in Germany. It's a good beer for hydrating yourself.

7. Hoegaarden wheat ale
Germans aren't the only ones who can make a good wheat beer. Belgians can too. Hoegaarden, which I refuse to pronounce correctly because "ho garden" is funnier than "who garden," is a delicious, unfiltered, spicy wheat beer.

6. Red Stripe
Hooray beer!

5. Sam Adams Summer Ale
There is a reason Sam Adams has managed to become the largest American-owned brewery: mergers and acquisitions of other breweries. But that's beside the point. They also make great beers. The Summer Ale is no exception, and it has rightfully become a staple of taps during the summer.

4. Goose Island 312
Call me a homer, but I am a fan of Goose Island's "urban wheat," 312. It's not as heavy as a lot of wheat beers, and it's a great cookout beer. Hopefully Anheuser-Busch InBev doesn't screw it up.

3 (tie). Hacker-Pschorr Weisse and Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier
The Germans do good things with beer, and particularly with weissbier (or, as we English speakers call it, wheat beer). Hacker-Pschorr and Paulaner make my two favorite regular weisses.

2. Franziskaner Weissbier Dunkel
As the name implies, this is a dark weiss, and it is fantastic. It is particularly enjoyable at the Englischer Garten in Munich (or any biergarten in Munich for that matter), but if you're one of those pansies who hates to fly, then just go to Binny's and drink it in the privacy of your secure, locked, xenophobic home.

1. Bell's Oberon
This is a delicious and refreshing unfiltered wheat ale, which Bell's makes seasonally each summer. Remember when Bell's had to leave Chicago a few years ago because of a dispute with it's distributor? I killed a man because of that. Bell's eventually came back, so you might think my actions were a bit hasty, but I had to go two summers without Oberon.

As always, I'd love to hear any other suggestions.