While every month of the year has plenty of positives regarding the beer you can get, there are few as unique as March. First, because it’s the month that bridges the gap between winter and spring (in terms of seasons and beer styles). Second, because it’s when the biggest drinking day of the year occurs. St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration of Irish culture that features corned beef, bangers and mash, and a ton of Irish whiskey.
It’s also a day loaded to the gills with beer (green and otherwise).
Not surprisingly. there are a ton of choices when it comes to March beers. If you prefer, you can still imbibe dark, bolder beers (like the St. Patrick’s Day staple Irish dry stout or dark lagers) or you can sip on something with a little spring zing. We’re talking about pale ales, sour ales, bocks, and lighter lagers.
We won’t make you find these March gems yourself, though. To help you get the most out of the month, we picked eight great beers for you. Keep scrolling to see all the flavorful, memorable beers to drink in March.
Pure Project I Choose Yuzu
ABV: 5%
Average Price: $15 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
Sipping a Pure Project I Choose Yuzu is a unique, refreshing way to dive right into March beers. In the simplest terms, it’s a sessionable, 5% ABV rice lager that’s flavored with yuzu. The result is a crisp, sweet, refreshing, citrus-filled beer that’s guaranteed to get you feeling like spring is right around the corner.
Tasting Notes:
A nose of candied orange peel, lemon zest, yuzu, sweet rice, and floral, earth hops greets you before your first sip. There’s more of the same in the best way possible with ripe grapefruit, tangerine, lime, yuzu, rice, cereal grains, and floral hops taking center stage. It’s extremely refreshing and balanced.
Bottom Line:
It’s an easy-drinking, sweet, citrus-filled beer that’s so refreshing and flavorful you’ll immediately want to crack open another one.
Phase Three The Claddagh
ABV: 4.2%
Average Price: $9 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
We suspect you’ll find time this month to enjoy a nice pint of Guinness. But after you enjoy the pride of Dublin, why not sip on an American take? Phase three The Claddagh is as authentic as American Irish dry stouts come. This creamy, chocolate, dry stout is brewed with pale malt, flaked oats, and roasted barley.
Tasting Notes:
This classic take on the Irish dry stout begins with a nose of dark chocolate, coffee beans, dried fruits, licorice, roasted barley, and a hint of floral, earthy hops. It’s creamy and sweet and filled with flavors of espresso beans, cocoa powder, raisins, treacle, bitter chocolate, roasted barley, and floral hops.
Bottom Line:
If you want an American take on the Irish dry stout that won’t leave you shaking your head, Phase Three The Claddagh is the beer for you.
Bell’s Oberon
ABV: 5.8%
Average Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
It’s not spring until Bell’s releases its iconic Oberon wheat beer. It won’t even be available until March 25th. Simply brewed with house ale yeast, hops, water, and wheat malts, it’s known for its orange hue and citrus-filled, sweet wheat, thirst-quenching flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. There are scents of sweet wheat, yeasty bread, orange peels, grass, hay, and floral hops. The palate follows suit with a ton of sweet wheat flavor followed by yeasty, freshly baked bread, candied orange peels, like wintry spices, and a finish of gently bitter floral hops. Wheat, sweet, citrus. What’s not to love?
Bottom Line:
Bell’s Oberon is an annual favorite for a reason. It’s a perfectly balanced banger of a beer that you’ll want to drink from now until the end of summer (or until your go-to store runs out).
Firestone Walker XPA
ABV: 5%
Average Price: $13 for a six-pack
The Beer:
You might be wondering what an XPA is. Well, so were we. But Firestone Walker XPA is a crushable, sessionable, hoppy pale ale brewed with Rahr Craft 2-row malt, Great Western white wheat, and Briess Carapils malt. It gets its snappy, floral, hoppy presence from Hallertau Tradition, Mosaic, Citra, and Nelson Sauvin hops.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a ton of citrus on this beer’s nose. There’s also a heap of grass, hay, and dank, floral hops. It’s evened out with cracker-like and sweet, caramel malts. On the palate, you’ll find stone fruit, berries, mango, ripe pineapple, tangerine, grapefruit, caramel malts, and dank, resinous hops. The finish is spicy, bitter, and memorable.
Bottom Line:
This will be your new go-to pale ale with its mix of citrus, caramel malts, and dank, bitter hops.
Hopworks POG Tropical Sour
ABV: 5.6%
Average Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
You might not think that a tropical sour ale belongs in your rotation for the end of winter. But, if you’re anything like us, you need a break from the cold air outside. Luckily, the folks at Hopworks recently released its popular POG Tropical Sour. It’s tart, sour, sweet, and filled with tangerine, mango, guava, and passionfruit flavors.
Tasting Notes:
Before your sip, you’re greeted by s symphony of tropical fruit aromas like passionfruit, caramelized pineapple, mango, guava, and light floral, herbal, earthy hops. Drinking it only adds to the vacation in your mouth with more passionfruit, honeydew melon, berries, guava, mango, ripe peach, and light, floral hops. It’s tart, sweet, and pleasantly sour.
Bottom Line:
It’s as fresh and full of tropical fruit flavors as tart and sour. It’s a very memorable beer you’ll want to seek out every time it’s re-released.
Jack’s Abby Nordic Frost
ABV: 7%
Average Price: $18 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans
The Beer:
We all know the late winter and early spring is a time for bock beers. But did you know that it’s also time for Icelandic-style bocks? Well, specifically Jack’s Abby Nordic Frost. This unique bock beer is decoction mashed and brewed with Caramunich and North American malts. The result is a complex, malty, sweet, rich, warming beer perfect for the end of winter.
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. There are aromas of freshly baked bread, caramel, honey, and floral, earthy, spicy hops. The palate is a mix of bready malts, caramel, sweet honey, candied orange peel, tree nuts, dried fruits, and earthy, herbal, floral, grassy hops. The finish is a mixture of sweet malts and bitter, floral hops.
Bottom Line:
This is a unique, well-rounded wintry bock beer. It’s malt-forward and finishes with floral, bitter hops that leave you craving more.
Southern Tier Irish Cream Stout
ABV: 5.8%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
Created to taste like an Irish cream cocktail, this unique stout is brewed with a 2-row pale base, caramel 60, and debittered black malts, as well as barley flakes. It’s hopped with Chinook and Cascade hops and gets its memorable flavor from the addition of milk sugar and Irish cream flavor.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a ton of sweetness on this beer’s nose. This includes aromas of vanilla, toffee, Irish cream, coffee beans, chocolate, and roasted barley. Drinking it reveals a very complex beer with notes of molasses cookies, caramel candy, vanilla beans, freshly brewed coffee, roasted malts, and more memorable Irish cream. The finish is a nice mix of sweetness and bitterness.
Bottom Line:
If you’re a fan of adding a little Irish cream to your coffee from time to time, you’re going to love this exceptional seasonal beer.
Montauk Cold Day IPA
ABV: 6.7%
Average Price: $12 for a six-pack
The Beer:
You can probably guess that based on its name, this is an IPA for the last waning winter days. First released in 2020 and brewed with Amarilla and Strata hops, this beer is available from the fall through March. It’s known for its hazy appearance and hoppy, citrusy, piney, refreshing aroma and flavor.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find notes of grapefruit, ripe pineapple, tangerine, light malts, and resinous, piney hops. The palate continues this trend with lemon, tangerine, grapefruit, honeydew melon, caramelized pineapple, sweet malts, and dank, pine all making an appearance.
Bottom Line:
If you’re an IPA drinker and you’re looking for a beer that’s flavorful enough to stand up to the last chilly days of winter, this is your brew.