It’s happening. Binghamton is changing. The snow will turn back to rain, the temperature will hover in the 40s and 50s instead of the 20s and 30s and the skies will, of course, remain gray. But it’s time to put away those Ugg boots, North Face jackets, fur hats and, yes, even the winter ale has to go. Spring is (hopefully) here.

The snow piles are turning into mud puddles so now it’s time to turn your thirsty eyes onto a nice, refreshing spring beer.

Donna Kordula, a bartender at the Ale House, recommended both Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat Ale and Saranac Pomegranate Wheat Ale as beers for the warmer season.

“They’re both fruit; being a wheat beer they’re lighter,” Kordula said. “People start to think fruity as it gets warmer.”

Kordula said both beers are quite popular during the warmer season, but proved to be so popular that the bar now keeps them around during the colder months.

The Sunset Wheat is a beer very heavy in fruit taste; both the Ale House and the Leinenkugel Web site recommend serving it with a slice of orange garnishing the glass. According to the site, it compliments the coriander. Whatever it does, it works.

The fruity taste could quickly make one forget they were drinking beer, especially if they’re used to having whatever is in the keg at the last frat party they went to.

About midway through the glass, a familiar taste started to become overwhelming.

Lauren Barone, a senior nursing major, nailed it right on the head.

“It tastes just like Fruity Pebbles,” she said. “I couldn’t put my finger on it for the longest time.”

The beer leaves a pleasant taste in one’s mouth; it can definitely make the drinker forget they’re living under the dark gray skies of Binghamton. As clich√É.√© as it sounds, it did taste like the sun was setting on a warm day.

The Saranac Pomegranate Wheat is a much sweeter beer, but not as fruity as the Sunset Wheat.

Kevin Cheung, a senior philosophy, politics and law major, said the beer was very refreshing.

“It tastes sweet, hardly like beer,” Cheung said. “It’s very light.”

Both beers are quite suitable to help pull the winter blues out of any student, and when Binghamton gets that late March/April snow it’s bound to have, dig up a Sunset or Pomegranate wheat and travel to someplace where the sun is shining. Who cares if it’s only a mental image?