A gin and tonic is lovely and a glass of Provençal rosé can be delightful. But let’s face it, when the thermometer begins to hit summer highs, there is nothing as cooling as a frosty mug of beer. Perhaps that’s why beer is one of the world’s oldest beverages. Patrick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, has traced the earliest confirmed barley beer to the central Zagros Mountains of Iran and dated it to c. 3,400–3,000 B.C.

Beer was the most common beverage in lowland Mesopotamia, consumed by all levels of society. Ancient brewmasters created light, dark, and amber beers, sweet ones and specially filtered ones for their drinking public. Ancient Egyptians of all levels of society and age groups also savored it. Tjenenet was their goddess of beer, and indeed many Egyptian brewmasters were women. Egyptian beer, like a lot of today’s African beers, was cloudy and more like gruel than the brews produced today by Offshore Ale Company and Bad Martha. And yet thousands of years of history connect them.

Still, Tjenenet and ancient Mesopotamia were probably far from anyone’s mind when Offshore Ale was founded in Oak Bluffs in 1997. It was just about brewing good beer, and still is, according to master brewer Neil Atkins, who arrived at Offshore in 2007. “We do East Coast/West Coast style of beer and offer about twenty different types, of which ten or so are available at any one time,” he said. The beers change with the seasons. “For the summer we will be offering some of the warmer weather favorites,” like Blueberry Ale and Mai Bock. “But we’ll keep out regulars like Offshore Amber, our flagship beer that combines malt and hops for a medium-bodied beer with hints of caramel and a zing of citrus

“We’ll be doing our Lazy Frog I.P.A. and our medal-winning East Chop Lighthouse Ale. There’ll even be a Mann Hütte Hefeweizen, an unfiltered German-style wheat beer.”

Craft beer makers being a collegial group, Offshore Ale also has teemed up with Bad Martha, the new kid on the Island’s brewery block, for a bourbon-barrel-aged beer. The first batch arrived in May, and will be available at both Offshore and Bad Martha’s Edgartown farmer’s brewery and tasting room while supplies last.

That’s not the only thing Bad Martha brewmaster James Carleton has in store for the brewery’s second season. This year he plans to offer cask beer in addition to the up to ten beers that are on tap at any given time. Returning favorites include the Vineyard Summer Ale, Vineyard Honey Ale, and the Martha’s Vineyard Ale, which won a gold medal in the 2014 Great International Beer Festival in Providence in November.

Whether your preferred Island brew is Offshore’s Lazy Frog or Bad Martha’s Vineyard Honey Ale, when summer heats up, remember to raise a glass to Tjenenet and brewmasters everywhere.