Beers for summer outdoor eating

First published in BEER August 2008.

One of the pleasures of good weather is al fresco dining, but discerning beer drinkers needn’t feel they have to reach for the bottles of bubbly or, even worse, haul a slab of the amber nectar for from the fridge. Bottle conditioned beers can be subtle, sophisticated and robustly flavoured but still just as quenching and refreshing as that stuff you wouldn’t give a XXXX for.

For general outdoor drinking, pick a decent golden ale of the sort that might also convince lager guzzling guests. Kingstone Kinsons Organic Gold (4 per cent), from a small farm brewery at Tintern near Chepstow that also boasts a shop specialising in Welsh beer (www.meadowfarm.org.uk), is a hoppy but not overbitter ale with a grassy hop and rose aroma, a dry palate with a subtle strawberry note, and a long resiny-dry finish with more thistly hops – First Gold and Belgian-grown Fuggles are used. There’s also a non-organic version but the organic has more character.

Hop Back of Salisbury have a well-distributed bottled range. Summer Lightning is their flagship, but also consider the lemongrass and coriander flavoured Hop Back Taiphoon (4.2 per cent) – it’s designed for Thai food but will compliment other spicy flavours. This soft, light ale has a wheaty, vanilla touch, a bit Kölsch-like but with subtle spicing. Wheat beers in general are a good picnic as you won’t have to worry about clouding them by disturbing the sediment in transit– but do let them settle for a while before opening.

Proper India Pale Ales also stand up well to spicy flavours – try the superb Thornbridge Jaipur (5.9 per cent), from a Derbyshire stately home. This is flavour-packed with dried apricot, sulphur, spiced orange and blackcurrant flavours, finishing with a sustained puckering peppery bitterness.

A darker, more traditional bitter might go better with meatier food. Woodforde’s Norfolk Bitter (4.5 per cent) is a great example from one of East Anglia’s leading micros, easily available as one of Marks & Spencer’s range of exclusive Real Ales in a Bottle. This ruby brown beer has a lovely flowery glycerine aroma with earthy dryness over nutty malt and peach syrup on the palate, and autumn fruit on a drying finish. The same brewery’s celebrated Wherry Best Bitter is a great choice for lighter beer.

Don’t forget dark mild with food – it’s easily quaffable and the smoky, roasty tastes in some of the revivalist versions will complement barbecued food. Look out for Bartram’s Marld from one of Norfolk’s more eccentric small breweries. This has a roast aroma with nettle and geranium, blackberry, elderflower and burnt rubber on the palate and a long chocolate and coffee finish – an awful lot to pack in to only 3.4 per cent ABV.