Socially Distanced Beers of Late Summer

Of course, lager is the Maltese summer Festa staple beer but we’ve got a sh*t-load of warm-summer-breeze brews to fill your beach coolers; think sour ales, tropical fruit pales, wheat beers and thirst-quenching pilsners.

This is the “new” Summer; Xarabank Facebook stream, Skype Beer Catch-ups and 4×1 Meter Balcony BBQ’s so in order to make things a little bit more exciting and push you a bit out of your comfort zone, we have thought up a short list of what we think will make these late summer days more interesting.

Lager and Pilsners

Bottom fermenting beers like Lagers and Pilsners are the first that come to mind. Stylistically beers can be separated in two groups; Top and Bottom fermenting. Bottom fermenting beers are ones that have been fermented with a lager yeast which is a strain that needs a cool temperature to do it’ magic (5-10 degrees). These are styles that originated in central Europe due to their cooler climate; think (Lager) Germany and (Pilsner) Czechia.

The term Lager originates from the word “Lagern” in German which means “to store” as beers were traditionally fermented in cool mountainside caves to maintain that cool crisp temperature bracket to produce a light, clean fresh beer.

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Wheat Beers

Weizen vs Witbier

Both are wheat based. Weizen is a style that originates from Bavaria and they use Malted Wheat whereas a Witbier is a classic Belgian style traditionally spiced with coriander and orange peel and un-malted wheat is used hence the whitish pale cloudy appearance.

We have suggested both Classical styles and modern re-interpratations to tickle your taste buds, in any case all are great hot-weather-sweat-patch-summer-beers.

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Sour Beers

Sour beers are style that is the most unique in the world of beers. Totally distinct by offering mouth puckering, tart, acidic flavours kind of reminiscent of Dry Ciders. There are various styles of sour beers but the common denominator is always freshness.

The sourness or acidity is achieved either a by spontaneous fermentation from wild yeasts (Belgian Lambics) or by the addition of Lactobacillus, Saccharomyces or Brettanomyces in a mixed fermentation like “Kettle Souring”.

Classic Belgian styles like Lambics and Geuze are the epitome of this style with beers from classic breweries that can age further in the bottle for decades! These are really complex brews and we have a nice selection by Monk’s Café and Italian masters Collerosso!

Weird & Wonderful

Other Mixed ferm styles that we stock are Gose, Sour IPA’s and Fruit infused Ales! Check out the below;