Lemon Breeze Takes Its Lemon From a Hop and From the Peel

An American wheat ale at 4.3 percent that goes after lemon twice. Lemon Drop hops handle one half, a generous dry-hop charge of actual lemon peel handles the other, and Hallertau holds the base.

Style: American Pale Wheat Ale
Release Date: 2026-09-17
ABV: 4.3%
Farmington Brewing Company (Farmington, MI)

Lemon Breeze goes after one flavor from two directions at once.

Farmington Brewing Company has the beer pouring at its Farmington, Michigan taproom, an American wheat ale at 4.3 percent ABV. The brewery brews it with Hallertau and Lemon Drop hops, then dry hops it with what it calls a generous addition of lemon peel.

That stacks the citrus deliberately. Lemon Drop is an American variety named for the character it carries, so the hop bill is already pointed at lemon before any fruit goes near the tank. The peel then arrives separately at dry hop, which is the part worth noticing. Citrus oils are volatile, and adding peel to the boil drives most of that aroma off with the steam. Adding it cold at the end of fermentation keeps it in the beer.

Hallertau is the steadying choice in the bill. It is a classic German noble hop with a soft, herbal, low-bitterness profile, which lets it fill out the hop character without introducing a competing flavor of its own.

The base suits the treatment. Wheat gives the beer body and a soft mouthfeel without much malt flavor to argue with citrus, and at 4.3 percent there is little alcohol weight in the way either. Farmington describes the result as a hazy straw color with a crisp, refreshing finish.

The brewery frames it as an outdoor beer, which places it slightly against the calendar in a mid-September tap list that also includes an Oktoberfest and a harvest lager.

Lemon Breeze is on tap now on Grand River Avenue.

Editor’s Take

Farmington has put a beer on tap that it describes, in writing, as one to enjoy outdoors with the sun on your face. It has done this in the third week of September, in Michigan, in the same newsletter that announces its Harvest Moon weekend and an Oktoberfest with a stein-hoisting competition. There is something I genuinely love about that scheduling. It is the beer equivalent of leaving the patio furniture out until the last possible moment, on the entirely reasonable grounds that there are still a few good afternoons left and somebody ought to be ready for them.

The construction underneath is smarter than the seasonal mismatch suggests, mind you. Lemon peel added at dry hop rather than in the boil is the whole trick, because citrus oil is volatile enough that boiling it is mostly an expensive way to scent the brewhouse. Add it cold, late, and to a 4.3 percent wheat beer with nothing much in the way to muffle it, and the lemon actually arrives in the glass. Then a hop named Lemon Drop turns up to say the same thing a second time from a different direction.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.