As we’ve mentioned in the past, there are no wrong months to imbibe beer. Every season has its various styles and flavors. And while it’s great to sip on a warming, high-ABV beer in the depths of dreary winter, there’s something really special about warm-weather beer. That’s why May is one of our favorite months for beer.
The weather is mild as we head towards summer and IPAs, pilsners, wheat beers, Mexican-style lagers, and any manner of light, crushable beer are in season. What’s better than sipping on a crisp, thirst-quenching, hoppy beer after an afternoon spent mowing the lawn, finally cleaning the over-filled gutters, or just sitting outside in a gravity chair enjoying the sun? We can’t think of much.
The only downfall of May beer drinking (and it’s not the worst thing) is that there are almost too many beer styles to choose from. Fear not, we’re here to help. We picked eight of the best beers to track down this May. Some are seasonal favorites and others are new releases. All are worthy of this warm, sunny summer gateway month. Keep scrolling to see them all.
ABV: 4.5%
Average Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Following the popularity of Genesee’s perennial favorite Grapefruit Kolsch and last year’s standout Pineapple Kolsch, the popular brewery is releasing a Mango Peach Kolsch this month. Available from April through August, it’s known for its crisp, refreshing, ripe peach, and tropical mango flavor.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find a bouquet of bready malts, ripe peach, mango, citrus peels, honey, and floral, earthy hops. The palate is very refreshing and crisp with notes of sweet malts, juicy peach, mango, guava, citrus zest, other tropical fruits, and floral hops. It’s sweet, crushable, and memorable.
Bottom Line:
If you’re a fan of fresh tropical fruit flavors, this is the Kolsch for you. It’s sweet, but surprisingly crushable on a hot day.
ABV: 5.3%
Average Price: $16 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
When it comes to fresh spring beers, it’s tough to beat the appeal of a well-made pale ale. Brewed with American ale yeast, Rahr pale malt, Gambrinus pilsner malt, and Carapils malt, it gets its snappy, floral hop element from using Calista, Chinook, and Simcoe hops.
Tasting Notes:
Before your first sip, you’ll be met with a nose of ripe peach, passionfruit, citrus peels, hay, melons, and floral hops. The palate is loaded with ripe berries, pineapple, grapefruit, and dank, earthy pine. The finish is crisp, refreshing, and gently bitter.
Bottom Line:
Some pale ales lean heavily into the bitter pine flavor, pFriem has that but it’s tempered with a nice tropical fruit backbone.
ABV: 5%
Average Price: $13 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
When made well, a Mexican-style lager is a nice mixture of malt sweetness and refreshment. Burgeon Beer’s Invita is a good example of the style. Brewed with German malts, maize, and Perle and Tettnanger hops, this award-winning beer is crisp, loaded with corn sweetness, and totally crushable.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a mixture of sweet corn, cereal grains, wet grass, honey, cracked black pepper, and floral, piney, earthy hops. There’s more of the same on the palate with a ton of corn sweetness up front as well as bready malts, orchard fruits, honey, fresh-cut grass, and floral, herbal hops. The finish is a nice mix of sweetness and floral hops.
Bottom Line:
When it comes to no-frills, sweet, refreshing Mexican-style lagers, you can do much worse than Burgeon Beer Invita. It’s a really solid beer.
ABV: 8%
Average Price: $11 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Who doesn’t love a good wheat beer on a spring day, right? Well, Widmer Brothers makes a handful of memorable wheat beers. Our favorite of the bunch is its Imperial Hefe. This 8% ABV brew is made with 2-row malt and wheat as well as Citra and Idaho-7 hops. The result is an easy-drinking, tropical fruit and wheat-filled beer.
Tasting Notes:
A complex nose of ripe grapefruit, mango, tangerine, sweet wheat, bready malts, yeast, and light spices greets you before your first sip. Sipping it reveals notes of tangerine, lemon zest, grapefruit, mango, sweet malts, wheat, and light wintry spices. The finish is a nice mix of yeast, sweetness, and spice.
Bottom Line:
If you enjoy a nice hefeweizen on a hot spring day why not crack open the imperial version on a chilly spring night? We know we will.
ABV: 8.5%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This 8.5% ABV double IPA is one of Troegs’ spring releases for 2024. Brewed with Simcoe hops and flavored with mango, it’s a classic IPA with a tropical fruit twist. If you love juicy, fruity beers, and hoppy, floral, piney double IPAs, this is a can’t-miss beer this spring.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a mix of grapefruit, sweet honey, hay, mango, caramelized pineapple, and floral, piney hops. The palate continues this trend with a ton of ripe mango, guava, pineapple, honey, fresh-cut grass, hay, and dank, piney hops. The finish is a great mix of tropical sweetness and gentle hop bitterness.
Bottom Line:
This is a must-try double IPA. It would be great just as a classic IPA, but it’s propelled to a whole new level with the addition of mango.
ABV: 9.5%
Average Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
Releasing this month, Redhook Big Juicy Ballard is the newest release in the Big Ballard Series. Other releases include the Original, Hazy, and Tropical. This 9.5% ABV hazy IPA is juicy and loaded with citrus, tropical fruit flavor, and piney hops. It was created to pay homage to the bold, imperial IPAs that came before it.
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this IPA nose. There are notes of tangerine, ripe orange, grapefruit, and other citrus aromas. There’s also a ton of tropical fruit and gentle pine. For a “juicy” IPA, it’s surprisingly crisp and refreshing with a good kick of orange peel, grapefruit, lemon, sweet malt, and more tropical fruit flavors. The finish is dry, hoppy, and lightly bitter.
Bottom Line:
This is a very unique IPA. It’s juicy and filled with citrus and tropical fruit flavors, but it’s also crisp, dry, and refreshing.
ABV: 4.2%
Average Price: $11 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Adorned with the image of the vibrant, multi-colored pinata, this Mexican-style lager is a great choice for May (or any warm month of the year). This easy-drinking, no-frills, year-round lager has won multiple awards over the years. It’s known for its sweet, crushable body with just a hint of lime.
Tasting Notes:
You’ll find classic Mexican-style lager aromas when you nose this beer. There are notes of sweet corn, cereal grains, pale malts, honey, citrus peels, and floral hops. Drinking it brings forth notes of sweet corn, pale malts, cereal sweetness, orange peels, honey, hay, and grassy, floral hops. It’s gently sweet, crisp, and very refreshing,
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason Sun King Pachanga has won so many awards. It’s a simple, easy-drinking Mexican-style lager, but it’s surprisingly balanced.
ABV: 8.5%
Average Price: $16 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
When it comes to IPAs (especially hazy, New England-style IPAs), you can’t go wrong with the folks at Colorado’s Weldwerks. Its Juicy Bits is one of the most highly regarded hazy beers ever made. But, if you want a change of pace, opt for its DDH It’s a Unicorn Things. This double dry-hopped hazy imperial IPA is brewed with Citra, Mosaic, and Lotus hops.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of sweet malts, tangerine, ripe peach, pineapple, pink grapefruit, mango, honeydew melon, and dank, piney hops are prevalent on the nose. The palate is loaded with notes of caramelized pineapple, sweet malts, honeydew melon, tangerine, lemon peel, mango, passionfruit, juicy peach, and prickly, lightly bitter, piney hops. The finish is sweet, sticky, and dry.
Bottom Line:
This is the kind of beer that takes multiple samples to unlock all the aromas and flavors. This is a juicy, flavor explosion of a beer.
