Let's talk...shandies!

Yuri's stream of consciousness said:

It's hot, it's humid, it's approaching summer, and I want something refreshing. There's some beer in the fridge. Yeah, but that beer is strong and dark, except for Abita Amber, and it isn't very good. There's lemonade. Wait...crap, we're out of lemonade. There's that bright red Tropicana "Fruit Fury" stuff. Yeah, but that's all sweet and syrupy. I sure wish we had some lemonade...I'd try mixing a shandy with that Abita stuff. Wait, why don't I just mix it with that fruit punch?

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So I did. And it's actually good! I mixed about 1 part Tropicana Tropical Fruit Fury to 2 parts Abita Amber, and I can't believe it tastes remotely good, but it actually tastes...GOOD! It doesn't taste like beer. It tastes like fruit soda, and the appearance is way better than expected - a bright coppery red with a hint of fizz. In the end, I got what I wanted - a refreshing, fizzy beverage.

I know, I'm losing all kinds of beer snob street cred...but I wanna know...

What have you guys tried? Traditional shandies? Off-the-wall, just because it was there combinations? What turned out well? What was expectedly awful?

No, let's not talk about BREWING a shandy. You don't BREW one, you MIX it.

I'm accustomed to a "shandygaff" which is 1 part ginger ale (get the good stuff) and 2 parts macrobrew (bmc) preferrably of the light variety. Crushed ice is good for this. I like to drink mine in the sun out of a very large canning jar.

Just got back from the Caribbean after 16 days. Nearly every island had their own shandy. Toured Banks brewery in Barbados....there lager was average, but I'm not a big Amstel/Heineken fan and it had that flavor to me.

But my SWMBO had their shandy..so i tried it.. Wow, it was indeed refreshing and of course she asked if I could make it at home. Well of course I can, I said.

So, I too am looking to make a shandy this summer. The Banks Shandy only had like 2% alcohol if I remember right..pretty low. I imagine one of the keys is to make a clear light lager. Which is a challenge for me, but hell I told the SWMBO that I could do it, so I better get on it.

We often make pitchers of "Strip and Go Naked" when we have deck parties. Can of Frozen lemonaid, Can of Vodka, Can of beer. Its good. Ill play around with some of my different beers at home with lemonaid and see what I come up with.

The only "shandy" I've ever partaken in knowingly was Leinkugel's Summer Shandy.....it was worse than bad.

the closest thing to a shandy i had was called the force and it was mixed in a gatorade container (god i love soccer teams ). It was a 30 of keystone light, a handle of vodka, a container of country time lemonade mix, and 2 cans of monster. It was fantastic with the parts being decent and the whole being much taster and much quicker to eff you up!

I highly recommend it at a party if youre a stupid college guy like me

maltMonkey said:

The only "shandy" I've ever partaken in knowingly was Leinkugel's Summer Shandy.....it was worse than bad.

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Hey now, it's not too bad, i mean i didn't like it but it tasted to me like someone used lemon peel instead of orange peel in a blue moon clone..... Ok so it was pretty bad, but it was refreshing ok. Gotta give credit to leinie though for at least trying, and i don't mean BMC trying like Michelob Porter or Miller Chill, i mean actually trying (which is 1 step short of REALLY trying).

Hmm... Never had that one, but I did try their berry soemthing or other... once....

Tasted like nasty koolaid.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about prepackaged shandies like Leinie's. I'm talking about soda/fruit juice concoctions using beer as a major portion of the ingredients.

Man Yuri- I keep looking for something you lost around here...

But I cant find your Man Card.

Almost made it to 10 posts before the obligatory sarcastic remark.

Dont.........Mix.........Beer.........with.......anything.

Beer good.......Shandie...........bad juju.

What if bad beer + something = palatable?

A traditional shandy is beer and lemonade, right? SO what beer is trad for it, and ale or a lager?

English bitter, if I'm not mistaken.

hey someone has got to do it. You know im Fing with ya

As for me- I am gonna make the AHS Summer Siason

But the Shandies do sound nice after last nights blitz

Okay , I know this is a really old post, but I'm bored at work and have been doing some forum archaeology. A few things:

1. Back in my wilder days, we used to mix up a concoction for parties called "California kool-Aid" - ingredients: A 40 oz. bottle of cheap beer, 1 can of frozen lemonade concentrate(or fruit punch), 1 fifth of vodka, 1 fifth of gin, and a 2 liter bottle of sprite. We eventually stopped making it because it is DEADLY. Does not taste like it has so much alcohol in it, nearly everyone who drank it ended up on the bathroom floor. This concoction is one of the main reasons I am a "beer-only" guy these days.

2. Last summer my parents brought me back some shandy from France called "Panache" that was absolutely delicious. It was nothing like any of the shandy-type beers I have ever tried here. It was not nearly as sweet as others. Tasted more like a light pale ale brewed with lemon. Most shandies to me taste like Bud light with Country Time lemonade poured in. This stuff was actually good.

3. I recently bought a 6 pack of Farson's shandy because a local store was selling them for 4 bucks. It is DISGUSTING. At only 4 bucks, I still got ripped off. It tastes like Natural Ice mixed with lemon floor cleaner. I can tolerate some sub-par beers, but after a couple swallows I couldn't bear to drink one more drop of this swill. The only good thing I can say about it is that it came in good bottles and the labels were easy to get off. If the bottles could talk, they would probably thank me for filling them up with beer that is actually good.