A couple weeks back on the cusp of the August long weekend, I focussed my CBC beer column on some options for long weekend beer drinking. My goal was not to present the standard summer fare, such as fruit beer, hefeweizens and the like but to identify some unusual choices that people might enjoy.

The long weekend is long gone but the summer weather is still with us. And since my friends at CBC just posted the column yesterday, I thought I would briefly re-hash my suggestions. You can listen to the column here.

So, what were my options? Here is what I offered up:

• I started with Saison, a style that is fairly well-known but I think is still unknown to average craft beer drinkers. I suggest a couple classics, including Saison Dupont, but then also suggest a couple of twists on the style, including Rural Routes Lavender Saison and Bellwood’s Farmhouse Saison.
• I then shift to “beer cocktails” (a term I hate), talking about Shandys briefly before shifting to the amazing Fallen Timber Meadjito, which does taste remarkably like a mojito. We tasted it on air, and it definitely passed the Adrienne test.
• Finally we talked about creative takes on the classic fruit beer. In particular the concept of fruited sour beer. I mention Blindman’s Lemon and Lime Sour and Folding Mountain’s Cranberry Sour but spend my energy extolling the virtues of Collective Arts Fruited Dry Hop Sour, which adds peach, passionfruit and raspberries then dry hops it for good measure. That is going all out for fruit! Adrienne seemed a bit less enthusiastic but I think she still liked it.

So, some interesting ideas for summer beer drinking that you can take or leave, but on the whole I think if you took the dive on any of these you wouldn’t be disappointed.