I’m standing in line at the liquor store. In one hand, I have a six-pack of Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy. In the other, I have Short Pants Shandy from Bauhaus. The guy in front of me looks me up and down like a cartoon wolf.Oh, no. That sounds so, wrong, on so many levels... especially....
He doesn’t seem to like what he sees.
I didn’t ask what he took issue with, but let’s assume it was the beer and not a natural aversion to dad bods. It’s not an uncommon reaction to shandy in the US. Like other sweet beers and cocktails, it’s looked down on or dismissively feminized by men... Others give it short shrift because they view it as less than beer because it’s a mix of beer and lemonade added after the brewing process.....
July 11, 2018
Things you don't really need to do.
I'm reading "The Weird Rise of Shandy, a Drink You Really Need to Give a Second Chance" at Thrillist:
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82 comments:
Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy is quite good on a hot day.
Tristram Shandy had a huge influence on Thomas Mann.
Linen Bullet?
Yah- for a hot day a little lemonade in the lager is very refreshing. You can just float a little lemonade on top or go half and half. It's all good.
If you're a day drinker (or perhaps, a breakfast drinker) the dilution helps with pacing...
What you really want however is a Radler- half lager half fizzy grapefruit soda, like Pellegrino Pompelmo.
It's all here in this handy guide, available on Amazon.
(no financial interest here whatsoever)
As far as summer drinks, I go for a homemade michelada.
The UK 'lemonade' used to make a Shandy is more like Sprite/7-up than what we think of lemonade. It's a pretty good drink on a warm day. My son once got a $20 tip from a Brit because he knew, from my telling, what a Shandy was and delivered to the weary traveler.
Shandy's are a Brit invention that goes down very nicely in the summer. Same with tinto de verano, which is a Spanish red wine/soda water or orange or lemon soda combo kind of like a spritzer and is also a popular summer drink. Shandies should never be made with good beer nor Tinto de verano with good wine, but they're refreshing on a hot day even for beer and wine snobs.
And a Radler is German for bicyclist, which means it's drunk by them. So fitting for Althouse.
Shandies should never be made with good beer
I know. That's what Coors is for.
The Lieny's Shandy is good. Though I have to be in the mood for it.
I was at a restaurant that had it on tap and I asked the waiter, "That's the beer with the citrus stuff in it, right?" (I was tired and 'lemonade' had left my brain.) The waiter said, 'Yes'. So my co-worker ordered one thinking it was all beer with a little bit of citrus flavoring. Boy, was he surprised.
I call BS on the manly disdain of his shandy selection. Anyone in a liquor store sometimes buys products that other people like to drink. The ladies and the hipsters need something in addition to Guinness. And one very cold Leinies summer shandy on a very hot day is good.
Leinenkugel’s Grapefruit Shandy is the winner. It's the perfect sweet/tart/bitter/alcoholy mix.
Just keep the fruit out of my beer......
John Tuffnell said...
I call BS on the manly disdain of his shandy selection.
Yeah, video or it didn't happen.
At any rate, when you buy beer for children you should tell the people in the Beer Shoppe that it's for your dog.
I also jumped to "radler". What's this "shandy" nonsense?
Germans serve you a radler when you're thirsty because no one in Europe knows how to pour ice water.
My last alcohol was consumed in 2013. It really has been refreshing to my health. I do sometimes miss the burn of high proof grapes, but I can get the same feeling from cleaning my gums with a Peroxide swish.
Life after arthritis prescriptions... I'm immune to cute brand names for treated city water.
Leinenkugel’s Grapefruit Shandy is the winner. It's the perfect sweet/tart/bitter/alcoholy mix.
My friend made me try a bit of hers and I was pleasantly surprised!
My husband's Philly-born Irish mother used to give him shandy all the time when he was a boy. It was a drink for children.
Real bums drink 20-20.
Why not just drink Gin and Tonic in the summer?
Drink a shandy before work when you're hung over. It works.
Sangria is the same idea, and was also considered a safe alcoholic drink for kids.
Drink a shandy before work when you're hung over
Pro move.
Real men don't drink shantys,or Zima, bit that's another subject.
Everything's a status symbol.
Camilla Parked Bowels' maiden name was Shand, so Charles has into shandy for decades.
"The Weird Rise of Shandy, a Drink You Really Need to Give a Second Chance"
Morning, just another day
Happy people pass my way
Looking in their eyes
I see a memory
I never realized
How happy you made me, oh Shandy
Well you came and you gave without taking
But I sent you away, oh Shandy
This is a reaction to the death by hops approach taken by many microbreweries, with 7 or 8 per cent IPAs. Shandy has a long tradition in the best beer country, England.
MadisonMan said... Why not just drink Gin and Tonic in the summer?
Indeed! Are you people TRYING to die of malaria ??
List item generated by post title: give up straws.
CJ said...
"Drink a shandy before work when you're hung over."
And you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Shandy
Maybe it's more manly to not give a f*** what about what other men think of your drink choice. But whatever. I've never tried the premade shandys, but I have made them myself with light American style lagers and liked them fine.
I like all sorts of beer from Coors Light to fancy craft beers, but I'm a little bored with India Pale Ales and I'm hoping that trend dies off. I also like hard cider, but they have to be dry, I can't stand super sweet ciders. Generally I don't like sweet alchoholic drinks, so I don't care much for the malted hard beverages like the hard lemondes and what-not.
"Things you don't really need to do"
We can now add "Show up in response to a Congressional Subpoena, if you're a Democrat."
Are half of all Americans alcoholics?
Leinenkugel
Linen Ball?
MadisonMan said...
Why not just drink Gin and Tonic in the summer?"
If you're driving, shandy is the safer pick. I would guess that is partly what is driving the proliferation of shandy, cider, spiked water and root beer and orange sodas, etc. Those G & T's go down so easily on a hot day that it's dangerously easy to overdo it. You would have to drink quite a few bottles of Grapefruit Shandy (which I like too) or Henry's hard soda to become plotzed.
Remember the video Althouse has posted of her parents hosting a party back in the 1950's? It looks very much the house parties I remember my WWII generation parents throwing in the '60's. I would sneak out of bed and watch them enviously from the second story landing. Almost every adult smoked. And if they weren't drinking beer, they downed "highballs" - Manhattans, Old Fashioneds and Whiskey Sours (Martinis were too snooty for my blue collar parents). They had a blast - and then they got into their cars after they were 3 sheets to the wind and drove home. I never heard that any of them got into accidents but nobody in their right mind wants to risk that today.
I don't think today's young people grew up in quite the same hard-drinking culture. I remember when white wine spitzers were fashionable and then along came appletinis and other Martini variations that would make James Bond toss his cookies. Of course people still get drunk, but as the drunk driving laws have become more stringent, the number of concoctions which still contain alcohol but are far less potent than traditional mixed drinks are growing, because it's tiresome for the designated driver to drink Sharp's or Diet Coke or Virgin Marys all evening long.
Are half of all Americans alcoholics?
I prefer to think of myself as a highly functional drunk.
Yes, I think the history of northern Europeans is closely tied to alcohol.....or as Churchill stated "I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken".
Grog sure ain't what it used to be. Beer and lemonade could be used for fattening up hogs for slaughter, but it is not what a real drink should be made from.
Shandy was something I drank growing up from 13 to 15.
"Yes, I think the history of northern Europeans is closely tied to alcohol.....or as Churchill stated "I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken".
I think I saw more falling down drunkenness on the streets of London and Leeds than I did at college keg parties. And people tell me the Russians make the Brits look like a Temperance League members by comparison. I recall a friend telling me she saw men in suits and ties passed out on steps and park benches in Moscow.
In France, I saw people drinking wine at 9 am, but the French prefer to sit and quietly (well, semi-quietly) destroy their livers. Getting really rowdy and obnoxious and stumbling around and puking while you are destroying your liver is frowned upon.
Do all if you really like alcohol so much?
Stupid Android always thinks I mean "if" not "of" for some reason. Apologies.
I think I saw more falling down drunkenness on the streets of London
I'm convinced that the whole transition from hunter-gather to farming was really just a ferment barrel that no one wanted to move......again.
Do all of you really like alcohol so much?
Yes.
It doesn't always like me back though. I don't drink much anymore, maybe once a week.
"Shandy has a long tradition in the best beer country, England."
Perhaps, but England didn't get that reputation as the best beer country from shandies, it got it from bitters, pale ales and India pale ales. But in Germany if it's not just hops, barley, water and yeast, then it doesn't count as beer at all.
Mike Rowe has an interesting and funny TV series on how alcohol made the US. Next, maybe he'll tackle tobacco.
Just pour a Zima into your Shandy if you want to man down.
The guy in front of me looks me up and down like a cartoon wolf.
Is that leering wolf or the hungry wolf?
That is a weird image.
As a child of british immigrants, I can shed some light on shandy. First of all, "lemonade" in this context is nothing at all like what we call lemonade in america. It's more like sprite or 7-up, but a bit lemonier. Secondly, while shandy is consider a little bit effeminate, it's more considered childish. I was first given a shandy when I was about 12 (that was in the 80's, nowadays maybe people are more reluctant to give alcohol to kids, I don't know).
It's a refreshing drink, a little sweet for me now that I'm grown, perhaps, but I'd drink one if that was what was on offer.
readering said...
Shandy was something I drank growing up from 13 to 15.
7/11/18, 10:12 AM
I wasn't drinking at 13, but by the time I was 16, friends were getting their older siblings to buy "soda pop wines" for them - Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill and Annie Green Springs are the two I remember. And then there was the truly vile MD 2020 - "Mad Dog" - which sent many a teen reeling into the bathroom in the 1970's.
Those soda pop wines were sweet, which appealed to kids, but they packed a hard punch.
I rarely drink hard liquor nowadays. And beer makes me feel bloated. A glass of wine accompanies dinner. If I want something mildly alcoholic in the evening, one or two bottles of shandy or spiked water suits me just fine.
I've heard somewhere that box wine is pretty good. Now where was that?
Jay V, your link don't work.
Shandy's are a Brit invention that goes down very nicely in the summer
Germans have been putting a lemon in wheat beer for a while.
Berliner Weisse is good too, with raspberry syrup.
Remember the video Althouse has posted of her parents hosting a party back in the 1950's? It looks very much the house parties I remember my WWII generation parents throwing in the '60's.
I have some of my Aunt's booze punch recipes. They generally look like "Pour two or three BOTTLES of liquor in a punch bowl, add some wine, and maybe a bit of lemonade"
People drank a lot more back then, I'm convinced.
People drank a lot more back then, I'm convinced.
Now everyone wants to liver forever.
Germans have been putting a lemon in wheat beer for a while.
The Germans have their own version of Shandy. They call it a Radler (literally "bike rider"). But not all of Germany knows about it. I ordered one in Cologne and they looked at me like I had two heads.
Shandys are tasty, but I imagine they'd be better with fresh juice and beer. Many of the drinks lifestyle writers cover don't seem to be anything special (although this may be my bartender past speaking), perhaps the writers need to spend more time drinking and gathering information.
As for what to drink when, or "real ____don't drink this drink", its all about situational awareness. Maybe a mimosa isn't considered that manly, but if you're at brunch, its a solid choice. Likewise, at a cocktail shindig, maybe don't ask for a bottle of Bud. Shandy/raedler is a great choice for a hot day, and I wouldn't find it strange for a gentleman to have one. As a female who drinks beer and whiskey (lets be real, I drink everything), suggesting some drinks are "manlier" than others is stupid (and I think those "skinny girl" drink mixes are stupid too). It does pay to be aware of what you're drinking when, and the circumstances, if you don't want to stick out.
The beer snobs used to always try to force IPAs and other bitter hoppy type beers on me. Before I learned how MOOBY hops makes men and could give solid non-taste reasons for avoiding their bottles of estrogen, I could do either
German Hef
or
Mexican Lager: Corona, Dos Equis (why not call it Tres Equis, I've often wondered)
in lieu of my normal low hops, low sugar domestic light beer. So basically, the same beer I normally drink, but wonderfully EXOTIC and FOREIGN.
Fortunately in Colorado I get a pass for Coors Light.
I mention MOOBY because they always act like real men drink those bitter beers. Maybe they are real men when they start...
Yes, generally if you order Lemonade anywhere in Western Europe what you will get is something similar to 7 Up.
* * * Link Fixed * * * (I think)
The video is derivative;
Submitted for your consideration:
Ironically, shorts + sweet drink + dad bod = Definition of masculinity
So wrong, it's right
Blogger Nonapod said...
I like all sorts of beer from Coors Light to fancy craft beers, but I'm a little bored with India Pale Ales and I'm hoping that trend dies off. I also like hard cider, but they have to be dry, I can't stand super sweet ciders. Generally I don't like sweet alchoholic drinks, so I don't care much for the malted hard beverages like the hard lemondes and what-not.
I'm tired of the "craft" beer movement as well. Dump in a crapload of hops and some fruit and hey, look, we made a craaaaft beer.
Don't drink shandy. Read Shandy.
My son's been making mead - some with fruity notes - and while it's summer refreshing, it comes in around 12 - 14% alcohol, so it's no good around the plunge router.
"Leinenkugel’s Grapefruit Shandy is the winner. It's the perfect sweet/tart/bitter/alcoholy mix."
We have cleaned out Total Wines a few times this summer of their Leininkugel's Grapefruit Shandy!
Sitting in an inner tube just floating is a great way to enjoy it!
They used to have a ginger shandy in their variety pack but they replaced it with watermelon shandy. Now THAT'S a vile beer!
Thirty-five years ago, after finishing graduate school, I took a trip to the UK for a few weeks before starting work. Walking around London on a hot June day, I grew thirsty, and went into a convenience store to get something to drink. I should add that I am not a beer drinker. I saw a can of something called "lemonade shandy," and thought "Ah, lemonade, that sounds good! I wonder what this 'shandy' word refers to?" I found out soon enough. I thought it was pretty disgusting.
Read Shandy.
I have Mom's copy. She was an English Major. Never been able to get past the first Chapter or two.
The actual purpose of sweet alcoholic beverages is to get young women's inhibitions to drop their panties and enjoy themselves.
Tried to order a shandy today at an LA brewpub with large selection of own draughts. watching England World Cup. They refused to mix anything in their beer. settled for 4 per cent lager.
The problem is with the name. Shandy sounds so wussy. Radler is radder. I make my own variation by mixing Sierra Nevada with OJ.
I like the occasional shandy, usually when eating brunch outdoors on a hot summer day. The restaurant that served them also introduced me to the stone fence, which I liked better. Their version was a half-and-half mix of ale and cider, although I've read that the original version (beloved by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys) was ale and rum.
French 75 is a shandy for grown ups.
Shandy's are for fags
A local brew house that serves such delicacies as "Eggs in Purgatory" (Fried Potatoes, Tomato Sauce, Slow Eggs, Carnitas, Pecorino, Arugula) suggests that you wash it down with Shandy Pants (Cream Ale, Lemonade) or Officer Shandy (Witbier, Lemonade).
Fruit in beer is disgusting. The guy getting the once over didn’t recognize the look that says “this beer is disgusting and anyone drinking it is insane so is this dweeb gonna go postal on me?”
Men in lavender.
Why not just drink Gin and Tonic in the summer?
Same reason I don't give fir trees blowjobs.
Refreshing summer drink over ice.
White Port and Lemon Juice
Damned fine song too!
We recently returned from a trip to Ireland and Scotland, and while I think one local Howth pub had shandy's on tap, mostly lots of great cider. The UK also recently updated their distilling laws recently, reducing the minimum barrel required for manufacture. The resulting explosion of craft gins available was remarkable. My wife (a gin despiser) was even lured into several gin cocktails in some of the specialized pubs. For a US shandy mixer, you might try 'bitter lemon', which also works well with gin or vodka if you wish to expand your guest list.
Henry said...
The guy in front of me looks me up and down like a cartoon wolf.
Is that leering wolf or the hungry wolf?
That is a weird image.
7/11/18, 10:43 AM
Especially for a man to have! Gay much?
Blogger funsize said...
As for what to drink when, or "real ____don't drink this drink", its all about situational awareness.
From A View To A Kill:
"James Bond had his first drink of the evening at Fouquet's. It was not a solid drink. One cannot drink seriously in French cafés. Out of doors on a pavement in the sun is no place for vodka or whisky or gin. A fine à l'eau is fairly serious, but it intoxicates without tasting very good. A quart de champagne or champagne à l'orange is all right before luncheon, but in the evening one quart leads to another quart and a bottle of indifferent champagne is a bad foundation for the night. Pernod is possible, but it should be drunk in company, and anyway Bond had never liked the stuff because its liquorice taste reminded him of his childhood. No, in cafés you have to drink the least offensive of the musical comedy drinks that go with them, and Bond always had the same thing - an Americano - Bitter Campari, Cinzano, a large slice of lemon peel and soda. For the soda he always stipulated Perrier, for his opinion expensive soda water was the cheapest way to improve a poor drink."
"Shandy's are for fags."
Shandy's what are for fags?
Indeed! Are you people TRYING to die of malaria ??
Well, there you go! I drink T&T, for medicinal purposes of course.
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