The Shandy Conundrum

I don't know about the weather where you live, but here in St. Louis it gets down right hot starting around late May.  The weather changes here a lot but one thing always seems constant, after Memorial Day, Hell is waiting right outside your front door.  It's this time of year that I like to fight the battle between good (nice weather) and evil (sizzling heat) with a bottle, can or mug of REALLY good beer.

As I've stated wholeheartedly before, I am a beer-snob.  I don't know what it is about a really good beer that gets me going but one thing is for sure; I LOVE beer.  I'll leave it at that since I've already posted about some of my favorite beers and my beer snobbery.  If you'd like to read my thoughts on it, click HERE.

Today's post isn't about beers as a whole, but a specific category of beer; the Shandy!  I found this massively refreshing style of beer about 7 years ago on a family trip to Wisconsin.  I was introduced to it while taking in some great views/weather at Lake Pewaukee.  I remember when I first tasted it, I fell in love almost immediately.  It was refreshing yet satisfying, sweet yet crisp and it was fantastic.

We should probably start by explaining what a Shandy is.  According to Wikipedia:

"A shandy, or shandygaff, is beer mixed with citrus-flavored soda, carbonated lemonade, ginger beer, ginger ale, or cider. The proportions of the two ingredients are adjusted to taste, normally half-and-half"

For our purposes here, we will focus on the Shandy that is made by mixing beer and lemonade as this is by far my favorite variation.  I do have other favorite variation (namely the Snakebite --- a mixture of Woodchuck Apple Cider and Guinness) but that is more of an Autumn drink that we can discuss later this year.

My favorite of all the Lemonade based Shandy's is Leinenkugels Summer Shandy.  This could very well be the MOST refreshing beer in the world.  It has the perfect balance of lemon and beer flavor.  The fruitiness isn't overpowering or shocking.  When I say 'perfect' I mean it.  This beer is by far the most flavorful and refreshing of all shandy's I've ever had.  Sadly, this beer is only available for about 4-5 months every year as the geniuses at Leiny's know how to market and create demand for their product.  Up until recently, it was really only available in the Midwest but I have now started to see it pop up in lots of places (like Sanibel, FL --- see THIS post from yesterday about my family vacation).  It is one of the few beers that I prefer out of the bottle but also DO NOT pass it up if it is on draft somewhere because it is arguably just as good.  And you know how much I like draft beer.

Another one I've tried recently that is refreshing as well is the Shock Top Shandy.  I could see where some would enjoy this beer a lot more than I did but I found it to have way too much lemon flavor.  It's simple, when you have too much of one thing in a food or drink, that item tends to be overpowering.  I found this to be true with the Shock Top variety.  Mind you, I''ve only had the draft variety so it is very likely that the bottled variety might taste better.  I plan on giving that a taste very soon for fairness, of course.  If you're a fan of Shock Top and are looking for a refreshing beer that isn't of the Shandy variety, try their new Shock Top Wheat IPA.  One of the better IPA's I've had in some time.

A few macro-breweries have tried to do variations of Shandy's but have failed miserably with the possibly exception of Budweiser with their Bud Light Lime... but I wouldn't even consider this a shandy so let's move on...

My last point is that, like many other items I mention on this blog, you can make your own Shandy!  Like I've said so many times before; cooking, eating and drinking is a journey that only you can go on yourself.  You can combine any number of flavors to create new and exciting food and drink.  Even a good refreshing Shandy!  Simply combine your favorite lemonade and beer together to make a flavor you like best.  The best concoction involves a good 50/50 split lemonade to beer ratio.

Well... it's 80 degrees here today, I think I might run to the store to see if I can find myself a Leiny's Summer Shandy!