Summer Lightning Country of Origin: England
Brewery: Hop Back
Beer Style: Cask Ale, English Ale/Bitter, IPA/Hoppy Beer
Alcohol By Volume: 5.0%
Format: 500 ml bottles
Pale, hoppy bitter with a rounded malt balance. Since its introduction, Summer Lightning has won more medals than any other English beer. In fact, it has won gold medals at the Great British Beer Festival for both its cask and bottled versions and was chosen Supreme Champion Beer of Britain at GBBF 2001.
Don't let the name fool you, by the way . . . as tasty as this beer is during the warmer months, it is very much a year 'round beer. Look for it on traditional handpump at finer beer bars.
Here's a little something we nicked off the internet . . . . we couldn't have said it better ourselves:
A Flash of Brilliance: British Summer Ale
by Randy Mosher
A shaft of golden light rips through a thin patch of the blotchy white sky. On the beach below, towels unfurl to reveal bumpy legs cased in vampire-white flesh, which cooks quickly to prawn pink in the hazy brilliance. Released from the dark closet of winter, seekers young and old sit and squint, dazed, mole-like, in the mossy sea air. It's a perfect summer day in England.
And it begs for a perfect summer ale--crisp, dry, refreshing, but sturdy enough to satisfy, a lovely citric hop aroma leaps from the dazzling white meringue.
A style like this seems so right, so suited to the timeless cycle of seasons, that it's hard to believe that summer ale is actually quite a modern creation, not yet 20 years old. John Gilbert of Hop Back Brewery created his famous Summer Lightning in the late 1980s, and it remains the standard bearer for this style. |
