If you’re reading this and you live in an apartment, townhouse, or a boat that you anchor offshore somewhere, consider yourself lucky. You don’t have to spend a few hours per week pushing an annoying lawnmower around a yard (or driving one). While it’s amazing having a lush, green lawn to play yard games on, have a picnic on, or simply stare longingly at… it’s also a lot of work to maintain. Weeding and mowing will take up a lot more of your life than you’d like.
The upside? Afterward, you can look forward to a frosty, refreshing beer.
As with anything, certain beers work better as post-lawnmower beers than others. There’s a good chance an afternoon spent mowing the lawn will be a sunny, fairly hot one. This means you’ll be quite parched. And while we certainly recommend a nice, tall glass of water to stay hydrated, we also believe you probably earned an IPA, pilsner, pale ale, wheat beer, Gose, or really anything else light, thirst-quenching, and sessionable.
We picked eight of the best, flavorful, refreshing, sessionable beers on the market for a taste test. Each is perfectly suitable for post-lawnmowing drinking. Or — if you don’t have a lawn to maintain — simply crack one of these open right now.
8) Full Sail Session Lager
ABV: 5%
Average Price: $10 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Full Session is messing around with this one. Instead of opting for some silly name, the brewers literally called it Session Lager, so you know exactly what you’re in for. This year-round favorite is known for its easy-drinking, crisp flavor from the liberal use two-row barley and Pilsner malt as well as a mix of European and American hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is classic lager with cereal grains, sweet corn, and some floral, earthy hops. It’s not the most exciting nose of all time. The palate continues this trend. It’s sweet, corny, and has some citrus and floral hops. Overall, it’s kind of watery.
Bottom Line:
This beer is supposed to be simple, crushable, and crisp. That’s what it is. It’s just that there isn’t much else besides that.
7) Wild Heaven Emergency Drinking Beer
ABV: 4.4%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
As warm-weather, session beers go, this one is really unique. This humorously named beer is like a mix of a Gose and a pilsner. It’s crisp, refreshing, and gets added flavor from the use of citrus zest, lemongrass, and Portuguese sea salt.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of cracker-like malts, citrus, and sea salt greets you before your first sip. The palate is crisp, lightly fruity, and filled with cereal grains, lemon, and sea salt. It’s a little heavy-handed with the salt and lemon and those flavors tend to dominate. Otherwise, it’s kind of muted.
Bottom Line:
If you don’t like sea salt and lemon, this isn’t the beer for you. It’s decent, but it doesn’t seem to want to go full Gose or full pilsner. It’s stuck in flavor purgatory.
6) Narragansett Fresh Catch
ABV: 4.2%
Average Price: $11 for a six-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
If you’re a fan of no-frills, easy-drinking lagers, you’re probably already a fan of the crushable Narragansett Lager. But we believe the Providence, Rhode Island-based brewery’s best lawnmower beer is actually its fruit and citrus-filled Citra-hopped blonde ale called Fresh Catch.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is filled with citrus peels, yeasty bread, cereal grains, sweet honey, and some corn. The palate continues this trend with citrus making the biggest statement followed by freshly baked bread, honey, and lightly piney, floral hops. The citrus is bold, but the other flavors are a bit light.
Bottom Line:
You can tell this beer has Citra hops in it as the citrus flavors are on point. Everything else is a little dull though.
5) Notch Session Pils
ABV: 4%
Average Price: $11 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Paying tribute to the sessionable pilsner style originating in the Czech Republic, Notch Session Pils is brewed with Pilsner malt, lager yeast, and Saaz hops. This crisp, easy-drinking pilsner clocks in at only 4% Abv, making it a great, refreshing choice after an afternoon of lawn mowing.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is filled with fresh-cut grass, honey, cereal grains, and toasted malts. The palate is centered on cereal grains, corn sweetness, citrus, honey, grass, and floral, herbal, earthy hops. It’s crisp, easy-drinking, and memorable. Still, definitely no frills.
Bottom Line:
This is a nice example of an American take on a classic Czech-style pilsner. It’s crisp and easy to drink. But not overly exciting.
4) Saint Arnold Fancy Lawnmower
ABV: 4.9%
Average Price: $9 for a six-pack
The Beer:
There might be no more aptly named lawnmower beer than Saint Arnold Fancy Lawnmower. This award-winning Kolsch-style beer gets its authentic taste from being brewed with Hallertau hops and Kolsch yeast. It’s hoppy, crisp, and filled with fruity, citrus flavors.
Tasting Notes:
Lemon, grass, bready malts, and flora, earthy, lightly piney hops make for a memorable nose. The lemon is also very prominent on the palate along with more yeasty bread, fresh grass, and floral, earthy hops. It’s not the most sophisticated beer on the market, but it definitely drinks well after lawn mowing.
Bottom Line:
The Kolsch-style is very appropriate for hot, sunny days spent outside. Especially if you spent the afternoon covered in fresh-cut grass.
3) Societe The Coachman
ABV: 4.9%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
This award-winning session IPA comes from San Diego’s popular Societe Brewing. It’s known for its flavorful, easy-drinking palate featuring ripe tropical fruits, and bright citrus. It might be low in alcohol, but it’s not low in flavor.
Tasting Notes:
While not overly potent, the nose does feature notes of tangerine, ripe pineapple, honeydew melon, and light pine. The palate has a ton of tropical fruit and citrus flavors that ends with a gentle hint of bitter pine. Everything is a little lighter as is expected for a session IPA, but still flavorful.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for a session IPA to drink after an afternoon of lawn mowing, you can do much worse than Societe The Coachman.
2) von Trapp Helles
ABV: 4.9%
Average Price: $11 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Perhaps you hear the name of this brewery, and you recognize it and you’re not sure why. Well, that’s probably because you saw ‘The Sound of Music’ at some point. The brewery and lodge are owned by the actual von Trapp family made famous by the film. Makers of various Austrian-style beers, one of their most sessionable, easy-drinking beers is their Helles lager.
Tasting Notes:
A classic nose of yeasty bread, citrus peels, hay, honey, cereal grains, and floral, herbal, earthy hops make up a very inviting nose. More freshly baked bread on the palate. This is followed by grass, hay, honey, ripe fruits, citrus peels, and a nice, sweet, gently floral finish. It’s crisp, dry, and very drinkable on a hot day.
Bottom Line:
This is a classic, European-style Helles lager through and through. If you sipped this and didn’t know any better, you’d think you were tucking into a German or Austrian-made beer.
1) Oxbow Luppolo
ABV: 5%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
This 5% ABV Italian-style pilsner comes from the folks at Maine’s Oxbow Beer. It’s an unfiltered pilsners that brewed with European malts and hops and gets added aroma and flavor from being dry-hopped. It’s exceptionally crisp and flavorful. The kind of beer you’ll want to sip all spring and summer.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of sweet corn, rice cereal, honey, and light citrus zest. Drinking it reveals notes of cereal grains, corn pops, lemon peels, pepper, yeasty bread, and floral, earthy hops. The finish is crisp, dry, and leaves you wanting more. A truly great warm weather beer.
Bottom Line:
This is a crisp, easy-drinking beer for fans of Italian pale lagers as well as anyone who prefers their pilsners to have a little extra hop aroma and flavor. It’s a terrific beer.