South Bay Summer Beers – Tied House Café and Brewery

The next stop on the BetterBeerBlog South Bay Summer Beers Tour is Tied House Café and Brewery. Tied House and I have some history together. We’ve worked together to put on the Meet the Brewers beer fest for SF Beer Week as well as collaborated on a few other events. Needless to say, my efforts to shine the light on the South Bay craft beer scene would be much more difficult without the help of my friends at Tied House.

I was supposed to visit them early next week but I heard that they were having a Firkin Fundraiser for the Community Services Agency featuring a cask-conditioned firkin ale brewed with New Zealand Nelson-Sauvin hops. I don’t have much experience with those hops so I wanted to give the beer a shot. Unfortunately for me, a meeting I was in ran long and I missed out. Maybe next time.

Here are the beers I tried that I thought would be perfect for summer-time drinking.

Alpine Gold, 4.6%

Alpine Gold, 4.6%

Alpine Gold Label

Brilliantly clear gold color with a thin, white head. Flavor is slightly grainy, with a biscuity malt character up front that gives way to medium-low hop bitterness and floral, slightly piney hop flavor. Biscuity malt aroma, floral hop aroma. Body is low/medium-low with pickly carbonation and a dry finish.

New World Wheat, 4.7%

New World Wheat Beer, 4.7%

New World Wheat Beer Label

Slight wheat malt flavor with medium low hop bitterness and low hop flavor. Slight malt and hop aromas. Hazy gold color with a thin, white head. Medium-low body with a fine, yet spritzy carbonation and balanced finish. It’s not as crisp or refreshing as the Alpine Gold, but not by much.

Cascade Amber, 5.2%

Cascade Amber, 5.2%

Clear copper colored beer with a thin, off-white head. Toasted malt with caramel flavors and a light citrus and pine hop flavor. Hop bitterness is low/medium low and short-lived. Aroma is similar to the flavor. Body is medium-low, carbonation is medium-high and the finish is balanced. While I’d like to see more hop bitterness for the style, it’s a good, easy drinking ale.

What makes a Summer beer?

The Cascade Amber above was the strongest of the regular Tied House beers, at 5.2% ABV if you don’t count their seasonal Maibock or Hoptopia Double IPA from Hermitage Brewing Company. If % ABV were the only criteria I had for “summer beer” than the majority of their beers would fit the bill.

So what makes a Summer beer? So far, I’ve been drinking low % ABV beers from each of the breweries I’ve been to. Is that enough? Are beers made from lighter malt more “summer”? How about beers with a decent hop bite? Should I be paying more attention to seasonal beers from each brewery or are wheat-based beers the only beers up for consideration?

At the end of the day, I suppose that if you find the beer refreshing, then it’s a summer beer. What kind of beers do you find refreshing? Are there any beers from the upcoming breweries you think I should try? Let me know in the comments section.

Mabuhay!