As I sit and write this in mid December, it’s probably not the best time to be drinking an iconic summer refresher but my radiator is extremely warm tonight so I see no reason to pay reverence to my calendar.
This is a beer which will be recognisable to any real ale drinker across Britain and I’m sure there is nothing I can say about this beer which hasn’t already been said. I’m going to have a go, though.
The brewery describe Summer Lightning as ‘an extremely pleasant bitter, straw coloured beer with a terrific fresh, hoppy aroma. This, coupled with an intense bitterness, leads to an excellent long, dry finish.’
The beer pours cleanly and leaves a respectable, though short-lived, head. For such a light-coloured beer, though, it’s quite impressive. Said colour is a light straw hue and would be considered very light even for a commercial lager – let alone a real ale. The nose is light and zingy with citrus notes and a detectable hop component. It’s very fragrant in a flowery sense and has a certain lager quality to it. As the head settles, it smells noticeably like a German Kölsch.
The mouthfeel is sharp and zingy with the citrus notes coming through before you’ve even swallowed. There’s a definite hint of light liqourice coming through from the hop character; a strange thing to say about such a light beer, but it’s there. The hops continue through to the aftertaste which is sharp and somewhat tart in its bitterness. The peaty notes of the hops stay with you long past the aftertaste and leave you with a delightful reminder of what you’ve got to go back to.
This is a beer which has won many awards across the United Kingdom but, like so many, is not quite the same in bottled form as it is on draught or gravity dispense at a beer festival. A lot of light, hoppy beers struggle to find the same form in a bottle as they do au naturele but Hopback Summer Lightning does a comparatively good job of it. It’s quite amazing at how long the flavours linger in your mouth – long after the last sip has been taken.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’m off to enjoy the rest of the bottle.
