There’s a beer for every mood, season, and event

Storey Publishing

Randy Mosher knows which beers you should drink right now.

In his latest book, “Beer for All Seasons,” Mosher provides suggestions for any time of the year. It’s obvious that you should drink heavier beers in the cooler weather and lighter beers when it warms up, but Mosher sorts out which ones, what the exceptions to the rules are, and if a person who loves stout in December can also love pale lager.

“The you who browses the refrigerated shelves in the heat of summer may be a very different you than the person who stops to pick up something toothsome for the holidays,” Mosher writes. He uses 30-plus years in the industry — as a homebrewer, author, and graphic designer who has worked with various breweries — to offer advice from his personal and professional experience. “My wife always asks me, ‘What beer do I like here?’ ” says Mosher. “I know what she likes, and I’ve always got two or three things to suggest.”

Summer, writes the author, is a great time for beers that range from Pilsners to Witbiers to ales flavored with fruit. He tethers seasonal drinking to various events and festivals and identifies everything from wedding to lawnmower beers. “The idea of seasonal drinking is to learn about styles, to add a couple of new beers to the list of what you’ve experienced,” he says.

Mosher drinks seasonally himself, which made the book easy to write (it took him five months). His prose is sharp, his suggestions geared toward the novice, along with intermediate and expert beer drinkers. He says he’s conscious of writing for various audiences at all times, and that he doesn’t want to leave anyone out.

One thing he warns against is being closed-minded. “We drink so much with our eyes, it’s kind of a problem for us,” he says. “In the Caribbean, they drink a lot of light lagers, but also Dragon Stout and Guinness Extra Stout. It works for them.”

For a New England summer, Mosher strongly recommends the entire family of wheat beers, including Belgian witbiers, German hefeweizens, and American wheat ales. Sour beers? Yes. Fruit beers? Yes. But he’s also open to breaking his own rules.

“You can rely on experts to give you ideas, but ultimately it’s up to you,” says Mosher. “If you want to drink imperial stouts on the Fourth of July, have at it.”