Summer Shandy Recipe

A shandy is beer mixed with a non-alcoholic drink, usually lemonade. The low alcohol content makes it easy to drink on a hot day because you won’t get dehydrated. When it’s finally warm out, this is a great drink to mix up! 

Summer Shandy with Homemade Lemonade

Typically shandies use a light beer, which will lighten up considerably when you mix in the lemonade. Examples include Hefeweizen, a wheat beer, and pilsner, a pale lager. Spoon Fork Bacon’s recipe for a Summer Shandy uses light beer, homemade lemonade, and sparkling water for extra carbonation (making it more like a soda).

Ingredients:
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup sparkling water
4 (12 ounce) bottles of chilled Hefeweizen

Directions:
1. Place lemon juice and sugar into a pitcher and stir. Add waters and continue to stir until sugar dissolves.
2. Pour beer into chilled pint glasses and top each with a generous splash of sparkling lemonade. Serve.

Summer Shandy with Vodka

If you want a drink that requires less preparation and yields a higher alcohol content, look at this Pink Summer Shandy recipe from The Cookie Rookie. It’ll save you time mixing and measuring by using a pre-prepared lemonade powder.

PREP TIME: 5 mins
TOTAL TIME: 5 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
24 ounces light beer
4 ounces (1/2 cup) good quality vodka
4 cups water
1 quart size packet of Crystal Light Pink Lemonade powder
Lemons for garnish

Directions:
1. Mix the light beer, vodka, water, and lemonade powder in a large pitcher
2. Serve over ice and garnish with lemon slices

Other Variations

• Mix and match! Try a unconventionally dark beer, like an IPA. You can also match a strong beer with a strongly flavored lemonade.
• If you use store-bought lemonade, start by adding a cup of lemonade for every 12 ounces of beer.
• For a sweeter drink, add 1/4 cup of sugar for every cup of half cup of lemonade and 12 oz. of beer.
• Also try mixing lemonade and beer with store-bought simple syrup.

Presentation

• Use yellow-colored sugar for a fun garnish!
• Sugar the rim! (Fill a bowl with a little lemon juice and another with a layer of sugar. Flip your cup, put the rum in the juice, then sugar and rotate.)
• You can also coat the rim with Cayenne pepper and salt for a kick of flavor.

Once you get more comfortable, feel free to mix your beer and juice by taste. At Julio’s Beer Shop we have knowledgeable staff accompanied by a diverse and eclectic mix of beer – from great local New England breweries and other places around the world. You can mix and match your own six-pack as part of our wild six program and get rewards!