I'll take either this time of year, but prefer the floral aroma of Saaz hops. Those are native to Plzen in the Czech Republic, hence the name "Pilsner" (or "Pilsener"). Winter I drink ale or stout - too heavy for summer.
Do you know why King Wenceslaus (as in the carol "Good King Wenceslaus looked out, on the feast of Stephen") was called "good"? Wenceslaus III was king of Bohemia, Poland and towards the end of his reign, in a major case of the tail wagging the dog, of Hungary as well. In the late 13th century, beer could only legally be brewed by the Catholic Church (which didn't stop the Bohemians, but worried some of them). So the king travelled to Rome and persuaded the Pope to repeal the law banning the secular brewing of beer. When the king returned home, he was naturally a hero, and on his death they made a saint of him. Plzen, his home town, became the brewing capital of the world for a short while, particularly as the Czechs had perfected a method of producing clear, light beers when everywhere else in the world was doing dark and cloudy brews. The technique spread to Germany, lagering became the norm and they imposed a beer purity law (das Rheinheitsgebot) which declared that beer could contain water, barley malt, hops and nothing else (the action of yeast was unknown at the time). People had been adding weird things to beer at the time, Americans still do (adjuncts of corn, rice etc which may be cheaper than barley but detract from the flavour).
