The sun will come out…tomorrow? Maybe? Please?
Who knows when winter fill finally break its hateful vice grip, but as soon as it does, you’re going to want to have your fridge stocked accordingly.
The joy of drinking at this transitional time of year is that everything is fair game. You still want those dark, moody porters and stouts for cool nights, but you can also reacquaint yourself with styles you may have cast aside in the colder months: crisp pilsners, floral farmhouse ales, and German-style maibocks, for example. Still, there are standouts among the vast field of candidates.
Last year, we asked Birch & Barley’s Greg Engert to school us on saisons, a quintessential warm-weather style, and also tracked down the best local spring brews for those in the NYC area. All of these are still worth drinking now, but we wanted to dig deeper for 2014, tapping our panel of suds pros to share their go-to beers for the season. Here’s who we asked:
- Joshua M. Bernstein, author of The Complete Beer Course and First We Feast contributor
- Mike Lovullo, specialty brands manager for Union Beer Distributors
- David Brodrick, founder of Blind Tiger Ale House
- Ale Sharpton, beer journalist and author of Cruisin’ for a Brewsin’
- Julian Kurland, beer director at The Cannibal Beer & Butcher
- Bill Brooks, bartender at The Cannibal Beer & Butcher
- Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy’s No. 43; host of Beer Sessions Radio; founder of the Good Beer Seal
- Andrew Marcelli, beer buyer at Eataly NY/La Birreria NY
Any favorites you’d add to the list? Let us know in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter @firstwefeast.
