Shandy/Radler. Ingredients/Method?

[ShareBrewing]

There are so many ways to make a shandy/radler beer. How do you it and what's your method? Some mix actually lemonade with beer and some add zest and/or citrus juices to theirs, and some even add Kool-Aid. It'd be cool to see all the different ways to mix lemon/citrus to beer for a great summer crusher!

Do you add any special ingredients or make variations on the style?

And if anyone has been to Germany and has tried true radlers, let us know how it tastes or any history behind it.

 

[Warthaug]

I made a helles last year, half of which I dosed with a mix of frozen lemonaide and frozen pink grapefruit concentrate. Rational was that I could add the equivalent amount of fruit juice as a 50:50 mix of beer/juice, but while keeping a much larger portion of the mix beer. It wasn't bad, but was a little on the heavy side. Later in the summer I simply mixed helles with an equal volume of lemonaid/pink grapefruit juice, pre-diluted in water, and the resulting beverage was much more enjoyable and refreshing.

I'm going to re-brew the second recipe this summer, perhaps with a bit of zest to add some more zing.

 

[ShareBrewing]

This didn't turn out like a shandy as I hoped, by my aim with this exbeeriment was to see if a batch of wheat blonde base could be made to taste similar to a shandy with mainly the use of fresh zest and also fresh juice.

Added fresh zest and juice (to secondary) of:
- 16g navel orange zest
- 15g *Meier* lemon zest
*** cross of reg. lemons + tangerines
- 15g "regular" lemon zest
- 12oz fresh OJ
- 12oz fresh lemon juice

Let sit in secondary 2 weeks and then bottle. At first the beer was fairly zesty and slightly spicy and tart from the citrus, but not like a lemonade flavor. Honestly the mid-mouth was almost Arnie Palmer tea-like. Decent body and good maltiness behind the citrus. After 3 weeks the intense citrus flavor softened and the lemon notes really brighten the beer. Kind of in-between a true shandy and a plain citrus wheat.

Lesson learned: go HEAVY on the JUICE and maybe use half or less of the citrus I used.

 

[ShareBrewing]

My next attempt might be to make the base beer then add the lemonade at bottling. Debating whether to heat water with lemons/juice/zest and add, or perhaps just do the kool-aid approach.

 

[ShareBrewing]

Visited Hoppin' Frog Brewing in Akron, OH (WOW!!!). Can't speak more highly of this brewery, every beer was delicious and so spot on to the concepts of the brewers we're going for. I highly recommend anyone to go here!

There Turbo Shandy was hands down the best shandy I've ever tasted.

Does anyone have a clone recipe for Turbo Shandy by Hoppin' Frog?

According to the brewery, here are the specs:
OG 1.058
~7 IBU
7.0% ABV

When I spoke to the owner, he gave me his inspiration for his recipe, but of course he kept his ingredients secret!

He said he first started out just blending a [stronger?] super pale blonde ale with Countrytime Lemonade, but obviously he couldn't do that on the pro scale. So he had to "reverse engineer Countrytime to make his own version." This meant finding the right acid balance, right lemon juice to water ratio, and also playing with various sugars to get a complex result without being overly sweet. I asked about he use of zest in the lemonade concoction, but he vowed to keep it a secret. Darn.

So for all those who blend lemonade with a base beer to get a shandy, what might be the right ratio of beer and lemonade mixed? Do you use a commercial lemonade or make it yourself, and if so, how?

Thinking this through, this would only really be possible if one tried to halt future fermentation after primary, blend with the lemonade and the force carb in a keg. Any suggestions/ideas?

 

[BRADLEY SMITH]

Just now reading your post from last year... Any updates on mixing ratios for all grain shandy/radler clones? I've just now placed 6 gal of a base american wheat in my fermentation chamber. Next step is to tinker with mixing ratios.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I lived in Bavaria for 9 years. Rad = Wheel (tire = reifen). Radler = bike rider, a cyclist.

The scenario is a Gasthof (think: pub) on a bike path in or near the woods. A bunch of cyclists stop in for lunch and a beer. Owner was running short of beer and decided to mix 1/2 lager beer with 1/2 Fanta (a Coke product similar to Sprite, lemon-lime) to stretch his beer. The bikers liked it since it was both beer and refreshing from the soda. So, he put it on his menu. Word spread...the rest is history.

Shandy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandy. I've made a Jamaican Shandy in the past with ginger. I think it came out under 2% alcohol (per the recipe).

 

[BRADLEY SMITH]

Yeah I read the story behind the radler the other day... pretty incredible story!

 

[bucketnative]

Just watching Stage 4 of the Giro. On the English Eurosport feed, Jonathan Harris-Bass presents recipes from the region, and they were talking about granita... He liked to add a "shard" of lemon granita to beer as a sort of shandy. Sounds like a not so bad idea.

 

[ShareBrewing]

Decided today to brew a shandy next, so I guess it’s time to figure this s**** out again.

Though, I do have a random tip for stewing fresh lemons with zest/juice in hot water and then fermenting. Don’t do it!

I made an “all natural” lemonade last year and it was akin to alcoholic lemon Pledge cleaner. For a 12 gal batch, I stewed about 60 or more lemons sliced up and zested/juiced in hot water, mixed it with honey, some DME, and corn sugar and my god was it awful. The yeast completely altered the acidic profile and vital lemony citrus oils.

So, don’t try to mix lemonade and fresh wort together and ferment it. It won’t work.

 

[MaCheFai]

We brewed a great shandy last summer with a Pilsner recipe and then decided to mix with San Pellegrino Pompelmo. We were going to add it directly to the keg, but opted to keep it separate. I know that's not ideal, but we liked having an option of either drinking a pils or a shandy. And that way, we could also adjust to taste. We found some liked it more grapefruity than others. https://www.instagram.com/p/BY0eGM5AjmU/?taken-by=burningfallsbrewery

 

[ShareBrewing]

Does anyone have a favorite brand/type of lemonade mix for their shandy? This sounds like the option that easiest and most inexpensive.