Lemon Summer Shandy

Prep: 2 mins
Cook: 0 mins
Total: 2 mins
Serving: 1 serving
Yield: 1 drink

The shandy is a great summertime drink. It is refreshing, couldn't be easier to make, and is a nice way to enjoy your favorite beer on hot days. You will also have a drink that is lighter in alcohol, so you'll still be able to enjoy other activities.

A shandy is nothing more than a mixed drink of beer and lemonade. It is a popular way to dress up the average glass of beer, particularly in the summer, and is sometimes called a shandygraff or radler.

The average shandy uses equal parts of beer and lemonade, though these proportions can vary. You may want to add a little less lemonade with a wheat beer or choose to use more when mixing with a light lager. The preference is going to be a matter of personal taste and will probably vary with each style of beer.

Shandy Recipe

​The Spruce 

"A Summer Shandy is a little bit of heaven. I used a Mexican lager to combine with lemonade and it truly made my day. If both lemonade and beer are ice cold before mixing together, they will be even better when combined. If you haven’t had a Shandy before, it is time. Enjoy!" —Sean Johnson

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Ingredients

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    ingredients for Lemon Summer Shandy Recipe
     The Spruce
  2. Fill a standard pint glass half-way with beer.

    fill pint glass half full of beer for Shandy recipe
    The Spruce 
  3. Fill it the rest of the way with lemonade.

    fill rest of glass with lemonade for Shandy recipe
     The Spruce
  4. Garnish your glass with a lemon slice. Enjoy!

    Shandy Recipe garnished with lemon
     The Spruce

Tips

  • One of the best ways to choose a good shandy beer is, to begin with, those light, refreshing beers that you enjoy most in the summer. Wheat beer and light lagers create the best shandy and are preferred. Pilsner is always a favorite shandy base as well. If you love a hoppy IPA, it is fine to use a lighter one with a shandy, but you will probably not use a dark beer or stout.
  • Just as the quality of the beer is important, so is the quality of lemonade. You could use one of those popular lemonade mixes or purchase a pre-mixed bottle from the store, but the best lemonade is going to be made from scratch. Homemade lemonade is easy to make with fresh lemons, sugar, and water. It also produces a more refreshing lemonade with natural flavors, and you know exactly what is in it.
  • Squeezing fresh juice is probably the one step that keeps people from enjoying fresh lemonade, but that is easy as well. Maybe you can even get the kids to help and reward them with an afternoon lemonade party, saving your portion for a shandy, of course.

Recipe Variation

Besides a slice of lemon, you might experiment with adding other fruit to your shandy. A dollop of strawberry syrup or lilac simple syrup can add an additional element. You can play with what you have on hand.


Bottled Shandy Beers

It has been quite popular in recent years for brewers to release a summer shandy or radler beer. Many of these retain the lemon flavor of the shandy recipe, though a few opt for grapefruit or other citrus fruits and some add ginger for a nice contrast. Shandy beers tend to be lighter in alcohol as well, so these are good daytime sipping during the summer months. You can give them a try to see if they match your own mixed ones at home.

How Strong is a Shandy?

  • Since a shandy is half beer and half lemonade, it will have half the alcohol by volume (ABV) of whatever beer you choose to use.


Nutrition Facts (per serving)
153 Calories
0g Fat
26g Carbs
1g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 1
Amount per serving
Calories 153
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 15mg 1%
Total Carbohydrate 26g 10%
Dietary Fiber 0g 1%
Total Sugars 19g
Protein 1g
Vitamin C 11mg 55%
Calcium 16mg 1%
Iron 0mg 2%
Potassium 86mg 2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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