Beat the heat with a shandy
Photo by Speed-Light (Ted Thompson) via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Last Friday the Wisconsin State Journal ran the latest piece from their “Beer Baron,” Chris Drosner, featuring shandies and radlers. I only learned of the shandy in the last few years and had thought it was strictly a cocktail of beer and lemonade.
Apparently it can be a host of other things, too. For example, the traditional British shandygaff combines beer and ginger ale, and modern recipes often suggest using seltzer and frozen limeade, Sprite or 7-Up (really?!), or—for a French panaché—sparkling French lemonade. Whole Foods seems to put Santa Cruz Organic Lemonade on super-sale for a while each summer, so in the past I’ve stocked up then and blended it with a nice wheat beer or light beer like New Glarus Totally Naked. Now I’m thinking I might also try a French-style lemonade or ginger ale.
In his WSJ article, Drosner sings the praises of this thirst-quenching summer delight and then reviews three brewers’ bottled beverages: Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, Shock Top Lemon Shandy, and Samuel Adams Porch Rocker. For the skinny on all three, check out the full piece here.
