1. La Doña Cervecería's El Super Classico Lager

4.2% ABV

This beer will look familiar: light in color, golden, and bubbly. While it looks like the beers on TV, it has a lot more depth of flavor carefully packed into a light Mexican-style lager. Brewed in collaboration with La Tapatia restaurant, this balanced lager is clean and crisp, building from a cracker and corn first impression that begins dry and builds in sweetness, finishing with a balanced sweet corn meets crisply hopped finish. This blends a light pine presence with corn tortilla, for a Mexican-style lager experience that hop fans can enjoy too. There are subtle notes of papaya and melon layered within, making it a complex light beer that perfectly complements a summer taco night.

El Super Classico is available at the brewpub in the Harrison neighborhood.

2. Modist Brewing Co's Sea Salt Lime Supra Deluxe

5% ABV

The original recipe Supra Deluxe is year-round Japanese-style crisp lager that would be a natural fit for this list on its own. But Modist has a summer seasonal variation with added sea salt and lime for an extra, margarita-like twist. While it shares ingredients with the popular cocktail, this is indisputably a drink crafted for beer fans and not just novelty. All three elements of Sea Salt Lime Supra work together equally. The crisp, smooth lager sets the base, with soft bread and rice flavors complimented by a mild sweetness. Then a refreshing lime wash and a delicate touch of sea salt brings the freshness forward and, ultimately, makes you want another sip. The first sip gives a light touch of salt, followed by classic lager, with a smooth blend of lime, followed by that last lick of salt.

Modist Brewing Co's taproom is located in North Loop Minneapolis, near the Target Field light rail station. Supra Deluxe Sea Salt Lime is available on draft now and is sold in 12-ounce cans (6- and 12-packs). Modist also makes a light version of the original Supra lager.

3. Dangerous Man Brewing Company's Watermelon Sour

5% ABV

While watermelon is generally least pleasant as you bite into the rind, it’s the perfect part of the fruit for a beer, balancing the big sweetness with something more tart and, just as importantly for balance – it’s earthy and fresh with a light funk element. It tastes of summer and refreshment without resorting to gimmickry around a novelty ingredient. While many kettle sours lean toward a fruit-juice flavor, this one is a sour beer that’s actually sour. Watermelon Sour is on draft and in cans during summer months. Many Dangerous Man beers take a traditional style and add a new twist, such as this, they also serve light sessionable beers like a Kölsch, Cream Ale and Sake Rice Lager at their Beltrami taproom.

4. Utepils Brewing's Pontoon Afternoon

4.9% ABV

Utepils adds raspberry to a Kölsch-style ale, which compliments the naturally fruity yeast notes of the style with a toast and jam-like twist. Gold in color and relatively low in alcohol, this is a berry-forward beer that still tastes like a balanced beer instead of a fruit bomb. The raspberry hits first with big jammy notes, which transition to a more traditional Kölsch flavor profile that blends sweet grains with fruity yeast esters.

Pontoon Afternoon is available at the Utepils taproom, featuring a creekside beer garden just down the road from Theodore Wirth Park. Additional seasonal beers include the Belgian-style Season of the Wit and a Dortmunder Lager, a crisp easy-drinking lager with honey sweet toast notes and a classic, bitter finish.

5. Pryes Brewing Co's Course Correct

5.1% ABV

A year round offering, this hop-forward pale ale features Citra hops and has a soft, fizzy body that lets the hops shine without overpowering the palate or overdoing the ABV. I first hits with a juicy element, toasted bread, and lemon before finishing with a marriage of tropical fruit flavors and light resin. It carries many of the same traits as a classic West Coast-style IPA, but in a crisp, less bitter package.

Pryes Brewing Co's Golden ale and Main Squeeze lemon-lime blonde ale are also refreshing summer options and all of the beers listed here are available in cans at liquor stores as well as on draft at the riverside brewery.