One of the many perks of being a bartender brings the changing of the beer taps. Not only changing from one type of beer to another, but more so the changing of seasonal beer.  Seasonal beer arrivals bring a lot of excitement to the customer, and as bartenders we love seeing and sharing the customers’ excitement when we put a summer beer on tap as the weather starts to get warmer, or when we exchange the summer beers for the fall beers when the leaves start to turn and the air starts to have a chill to it.

            The change of the weather is not the only reason for seasonal beer. A lot of the change for seasonal beer has to do with the types of food that is seasonal as well. Summer beer is not only considered to be a light and easy to drink hot summer days, but many summer beers tend to have a fruity flavor to them to make them even more satisfying for the long hot days of summer. Shandys’ are particularly popular during the summer because they combine an even mix of lemonade and beer to make a smooth thirst quenching beer. Some breweries have taken to mixing other fruits in Shandys’ to offer more of a variety of summer beer.

            When the pumpkin, amber, and Octoberfest beer hits the taps this seems to bring the most excitement to the customer over any other type of seasonal beer in my opinion. As the weather gets colder and Thanksgiving starts to approach customers get very excited about having slightly heavier beer that can make up for the nip in the air. Whether it be the warm and sweet spices of nutmeg and cinnamon added to some fall beer or the sweetly rimmed cinnamon sugar topped glasses, fall beer is so popular in some areas it arrives midsummer.

            Although both winter and spring beer do have their own popularity, they do not seem to have the same popularity as summer and fall beer, and that is why both summer and fall beer tend to hit the taps before the actual season has begun. Winter tends to bring out the darker of beer, like stouts and porters. These heavy beers make perfect for the shorter colder days of winter as they leave you with a full feeling of warmth to continue taking on the winter. Once spring arrives the lighter beer starts to become popular again. After a long winter of drinking heavy beer many people will start with a dryer beer before then changing over to the summer beer.