#FridayCocktail: Old School Lemon Shandy
A traditional Shandy is beer mixed with lemonade (sometimes carbonated lemonade) but can be made by mixing beer and a variety of other non-alcoholic beverages. These include (but are not limited to); ginger ale, 7up, Sprite, cola or apple juice.
Versions of the Shandy can be found in almost every corner of the globe. In Chile, Fan-Schop is a combo of draught beer and Fanta orange soda. In Spain, a champú combines beer with a sweet lemon-lime soda. In Italy, a bici or biciletta is a mixture of beer with a traditional Italian lemon soda. The list goes on and on, from Germany to South Africa and Canada to Mexico.
Why did we chose to share the below recipe, with so many to select from? Mostly because it incorporates homemade lemonade, as opposed to a lemon soda and we love the addition of the fresh mint.
Cheers!
Ingredients
1 cup of sugar
3 cups of water
4-6 strips of lemon zest
1 cup of fresh lemon juice
4-6 fresh mint leaves
Chilled pale ale
Preparation
Zest a lemon using a vegetable peeler or paring knife.
In a saucepan, bring sugar and 1 cup of water to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Stir in lemon zest and remove from heat.
Cool to room temperature.
Transfer the lemon syrup to a pitcher and add the remaining 2 cups of water, lemon juice and mint.
For best results, chill the lemonade overnight.
To serve, pour a ¼ cup of lemonade into a chilled beer glass and top with pale ale. Add a sprig of mint or a lemon wedge to garnish.
Serves 4-6