Shandy/Alster/Panaché Drink.
Type: Beer Drink
Recipe: 50% Lemonade/50% Lager (Blonde Ale)
Featured: Keweenaw Pick Axe Blonde Ale
Like many of these old-timey drinks, there is a bit of confusion as to what actually constitutes a shandy. According to online sources, in the U.S. a shandy is usually a mix of lager and ginger ale or ginger beer. In the U.K., it is usually lemon soda with lager.
The German and French equivalents Alster (short for Alsterwasser, after the Alster river that flows through Hamburg) Panaché respectively, are both lagers with lemonade. Being without ginger ale, but with lemonade, I decided on the continental version tonight. Also lacking a lager, I used the lager-like blonde ale from Keweenaw Brewing company in the Upper Pennisula of Michigan.
The result was very refreshing. As I am the only drinker in the house at the moment I had two. No sense in wasting a perfectly good half can of beer! At these proportions, the lemonade take the lead, but a pleasant bitterness pokes through at the end. The beer also gives it a full body and keeps the sweetness of the lemonade from subjecting my teeth to that grinding, aching sweetness they get from drinks like lemonade. It really hit the spot after a day of planting and coughing.
Sipology 
Leininkugel Beer company makes a beer for summer they call Shandy. I bought the summer sampler for the boys for this weekend. I don’t know what their shandy beer tastes like because I wasn’t drinking (beer) this weekend. However, someday we should do some samplings of shandys and dark and stormy nights!
Sounds like a great idea for Up North!