Pour half of each beverage slowly into one or two tall beer glasses. It really doesn’t matter which you pour in first, just tip the glass to the side when you pour. As far as I’m concerned, springtime is Dark and Stormy season. As the rain pummels the ground here in the Pacific Northwest, a little window of blue sky nestled between two dark clouds in the neighboring distance makes me wish I were watching the rain fall from across a dark ocean, my little Caribbean fishing…

By the way, there’s no ice in a proper shandy! I saw recipes that instructed ice to be added! Egads! 😱 The most common use of gaff is as the name for the spear or hook used for lifting heavy fish out of the water. Another gaff refers to loud laughter (as in "his resounding gaffs filled the room" or "he gaffed merrily")—senses found in dialectal Scottish English. There is also gaff meaning "a fair" or "a place of lower-class amusement (as at a theater or music hall)." In a 1918 collection of essays entitled, fittingly, Shandygaff, American writer Christopher Morley links the word shandygaff to the lower classes, "Shandygaff is a very refreshing drink, being a mixture of bitter ale or beer and ginger-beer, commonly drunk by the lower classes in England, and by strolling tinkers, low church parsons, newspaper men, journalists, and prizefighters." As early as the 17th century, shandy was also being used in dialectal English as an adjective to refer to people who were wild, boisterous, or slightly crazy. Perhaps, the "place of lower-class amusement" sense of gaff and this sense of shandy were blended together. It's certainly not unreasonable to think that people drinking shandygaffs in lower-class establishments got a little wild—we just need to find evidence corroborating this etymology. UPDATE: So much has been discovered since this post originally went up, about the dangers of quinine in people with quinine sensitivity. Big thank you to reader Jonathan for providing this informative link about this. I’m leaving this post up as an archive, but I encourage you to read that article first, and if you… Runaway to the Fells: 4% Spiced Damson Gose & Walk on The Mild Side: 6.0% Dark Ruby Mild (Both brewed in Collaboration with Fell Brewery) July & November 2021

Is a Traditional British Shandy Alcoholic?

Since radler means “cyclist” in German, other sources now assume that the radler was invented at the end of the 19th century in one of the predominantly social-democratic cycling clubs. The radler is a lesser-known beverage—essentially, it's a German lemon shandy—but like shandygaff, its history is uncertain. In German, the word Radler originally means "bicyclist," and stories on the origin of the drink's name are centered on that meaning. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the drink was conceived by an innkeeper in the early 20th century who either needed to stretch his supply of beer to accommodate his customers—who were mostly cyclists (his inn was, apparently, on a popular bike route)—or desired to provide a refreshing, less-alcoholic beverage to the riders. In either case, his solution was to mix the beer with the lemon soda that he had on hand. The thirsty customers loved it, and the beverage was apparently named after the cyclists. We'll say that the drink likely has a connection to cycling, but we are skeptical about the name's origin story—and its many versions.

Easy to drink and thirst-quenching, shandy beer is the ultimate summer drink. While this drink dominates the commercial market, there’s no stopping you from crafting a shandy beer at home. Classic panaché calls for equal parts beer and soda, but some people like their drink stronger. It is accepted that a shandy may contain up to 3 parts beer to 1 part lemonade. In England, Wales and Scotland, another type of shandy is called Lager Top. The word Lager is a generic term for bottom-fermented beers. A Top Lager is a lager with a hint of lemonade on top, which reduces the hardness of the lager. There are a few variations on the shandy that have become popularized via the Leinenkugel brand. But you can easily make them at home: and they taste so much better homemade! Here are our favorite variations: If you watch this video where James Corden is bartending in Liverpool, the lady asks for a lemonade, and you can see that she gets a clear sparkling soda, not a cloudy, pale yellow lemonade as we know it in the US. A pub in London. What is a Shandy?When I told Dad about the lemonade mix up with the classic shandy, he couldn’t believe it. I suppose now it’s too late to get the message out as all of the shandy recipes I found online are use the wrong type of lemonade! This is much like the ricotta recipes I’ve seen flooding the internet: 90% of them aren’t for ricotta! Ricotta means “cooked twice” so it’s a specific way it’s made. Most of the recipes all are making cheese, NOT ricotta–ugh. Oolong Blond: 6.0% & Berry & Hibiscus Sour 3.5% (Brewed in Collaboration with Manchester Art Gallery and Canton Tea) November 2019 Why water down your beer? Two reasons: it tastes great, and it’s a low alcohol drink, which makes it more hydrating in warm weather. The shandy is to beer exactly what a spritzer is to wine! Otter Nouveau 4.7% (Brewed in collaboration with Crisp Malting to celebrate the 50th harvest of Maris Otter) Sept 2015 In England, it is called shandy, or shandygaff. The same word is commonly used in Quebec and Canada.

Summer shandy: The summer shandy often uses lemon soda or sparkling lemonade as the mixer, which makes a refreshing, light and citursy flavor. We used wheat beer here, which enhances the light flavor. But yeah, personally if I want a sweeter stout, I get a pint of Mild. Mild is a type of beer that’s dying out, sadly, even though it’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s seen as an old man’s drink. It’s still very similar to a stout, and to be honest many of the real ale/microbrewery/craft beer “stouts” like the common chocolate stouts or vanilla stouts or oatmealare actually just Mild, but they call them stout because younger people don’t know what Mild even is. It’s a bad name, marketing wise, for the target audience of university students who want to party. Even though it’ll still get you drunk. But it you ever visit the UK and you see a pub that sells Mild, you’ve got to try it. Simply combine one part beer and one part lemonade in the glass you will be serving the drink in. Both the beer and the lemonade are bubbly and may foam, so let the foam disappear before the next addition. Prepare five slices of ginger, four beers, one sliced lemon, and one can of frozen concentrated lemonade for this drink. As the recipe name suggests, try this recipe, chill your way out, and beat the summer heat! 19. Cranberry ShandyAs I’m not a beer drinker, my biggest experience with shandy was my dad drinking them in summer. He’d love to have one after he’d been out cutting the grass for hours in the Michigan heat and humidity. Dad would come inside and pop open a lemon-lime soda (simply because that’s all we have in the US) and whatever beer he had on hand. He’d mix them together (about half and half) into a beer glass, and always said how thirst-quenching they were. I LOVE these toucan Guinness glasses! Topping up. Beer foams a lot more than soda, so I generally prefer to add the beer first, let the foam deflate, then top with the sugary fizz. Lemonade will also foam, but to a much lesser extent. Whereas, nowadays, a shandy is considered a blend of beer with any nonalcoholic beverage, the original specifically was beer mixed with ginger beer or ginger ale. (Both ginger beer and ginger ale are believed to have originated as alcoholic brews but were then processed as soft drinks, making their names misnomers as early as mid-19th century. Typically, ginger beer has a stronger gingery flavor.) Another traditional mixer for a shandy is carbonated lemonade. In Southern Germany or Austria, this type of drink is called Radler, while in Northern Germany it is called Alster or Alsterwasser, after a river in Hamburg. It has an alcohol content of about 2.5%. In Russia and in the southeastern German state of Bavaria, as well as in the Austrian countryside, a mixture of 50% Weißbier and 50% lemon soda is called Russ .

Chris Dela Rosa of Caribbean Pot showcases a straightforward guide to crafting a refreshing shandy beer recipe for sunny days. Unfortunately, people copy so many things off the internet (without proper research or giving credit) and so misinformation floods the web. After a certain point, it’s too late to fix it, but in this case, I’m trying my best! This is why it’s important to know and trust your recipe sources.

What is Shandy Beer?

Shandygaff is a compound word, but as to why the base words came together (or in what senses they are used in) is a mystery. Inevitably, there has been speculation. Some people have suggested that gaff is a portmanteau of ginger and half. That's possible, but what about the other multiple uses of gaff that enter the English language by mid-19th century? Quite possibly, one of those could have been applied jocularly for the beverage's name. It is very important to not let yourself be fooled by the lowered alcoholic content. Another aspect worth factoring in is that if the beer-lemonade ratio is not kept 50:50 the risk is that your drink might contain more alcohol than you expect. The sweetness from the lemonade might make it hard to detect by the flavour. If you are driving and unsure, make your panaché with alcohol-free beer. According to the story, on a Saturday in June 1922, he was in danger of running out of beer due to high demand. In a panic, he mixed half of his beer supply with lemonade and served it to his customers as a Radlermaß, meaning “cyclist’s measure” in German. Going by the book, proper panaché should be 50:50 beer and lemonade. Because it contains an alcoholic ingredient this drink is, in fact, alcoholic. Being mixed with a non-alcoholic ingredient, though, the beer gets watered down and that lowers its starting alcohol content.