"What's a shandy/radler?" and Other Beer News

Hot on the heels of the news that New Glarus is going to have its own lambic cellar comes word that Dan Carey has decided to start growing his own hops.





The old German configuration involves "crossed wires above and angled posts". I wonder what inspired this. A new challenge? Or perhaps certain varieties are rare or unavailable commercially or are prohibitively expensive?

News is that Pilsner Urquell is going to get the royal treatment on its journey here to the States. From the press release:

“The primary enemies to beer are light, time and heat,” said Vaclav Berka, the Pilsner Urquell brewmaster. “Due to these factors, the Pilsner Urquell that people have drunk in the U.S. over the past years simply has not been the equivalent of the fresh Pilsner Urquell available in the Czech Republic. We are changing that.”

The beer is now packaged in fully enclosed secondary cartons that ship from the brewery within 30 days aboard refrigerated containers. This helps stop the aging process of the beer. Distributors also will maintain the beer’s refrigeration once they receive it.

More foreign beer deserves this treatment. German bier consultant Horst Dornbusch helped devise a program called Cold Track with five Bavarian brewers and an importer and a distributor to ensure the beer was kept cold during shipment and storage. Having never seen a bottle of Bavarian bier with the program's logo of a penguin with a tray of bier, I am unsure if Cold Track never got off the ground or just remained an agreement with one importer and one distributor.

Speaking of German beers, Schneider Weisse has a couple new entries in its Tap X series.





As far as I know, the first was Mein Nelson Sauvin, a weizenbock with Nelson Sauvin hops, a variety from New Zealand. The new brews are Mein Eisbock Barrique, SW's Aventinus Eisbock that has been aged in pinot noir barrels for 15 months, and Mein Cuvée Barrique, a weizen doppelbock aged in pinot noir barrels for eight months. I presume the latter is their Aventinus, the gold standard in weizen doppelbocks. These sure sound tasty and I'd love to have a few bottles in my cellar come winter. A small victory against the tyranny of commercial German lagers.

Any Madisonians ever see Mein Nelson Sauvin around these parts? I don't recall ever having seen it. And after being told by the beer buyer at Steve's Liquor that they can't even order the Sam Adams Small Batch Series brews they want, I presume I'll have to go to Chicago to find any bottles of Tap X.





Speaking of Chicago, I noticed that Finch's beers have made their way to Madison. The Jenifer Street Market, anyway. Golden Wing Blonde Ale, Cut Throat Pale Ale, and Threadless IPA were all there in 4-packs of cans.

Lastly, I was disappointed with Chris Drosner's article about shandies from last week. He reviews Shock Top Lemon Shandy, Leinenkukgel's Summer Shandy, and Samuel Adams' Porch Rocker radler.

Bright and refreshing, shandies — or radlers, if you sprechen sie Deutsch — are less a beer style than they are a beer cocktail, with lemon flavoring or lemonade being the key mixer. Between their lemon zing, light body and low carbonation and alcohol content, they’re perfect quenchers for beach outings, fishing excursions, softball games or any other occasion that merges beer and sweat.

While it was nice to see these summer thirst quenchers in the spotlight, I don't see how adding lemon flavoring to a beer somehow comprises a beer cocktail. If I put a dash of bitters into a glass of brandy, I don't have a cocktail, I have adulterated spirits. Shock Top and Summer Shandy are both 4.2% ABV while Porch Rocker is 4.5%. Although not reviewed, Potosi's Steamboat Shandy is mentioned and it weighs in at 4.5%. These are not shandies, they're lemon-flavored beers. Shandies and radlers are mixtures of beer and some kind of soft drink such as lemonade or citrus soda so the alcohol content is generally 3% or under.

Also given a nod is Capital's Radler, a mix of beer and citrus soda, but it's only about 2.5%. Stiegl's radlers are also 2.5%. They mix Stiegl Goldbräu, which is 4.9%, with soda. (BTW, their grapefruit radler kicks ass. I've seen it at Jenifer Street Market and Trixie's. The six-pack I bought during the big heat wave earlier this month didn't last long.) These are very low alcohol beer cocktails. When did 4.5% become "low alcohol" instead of middle of the road? I guess it's low alcohol if you consider beer with an appellation that contains "imperial", "double", or “wine” to be average strength.

At the end of the day, it's all a matter of perspective. To me, English milds at 3.x%, traditional saisons at about 3.5%, and shandies/radlers at 2.5% are in a range of low alcohol to very low alcohol. Using a declarative adjective, for me, means you're getting to the bottom end of a range and I don't consider 4.2-4.5% to be close to the bottom end, although 4.2% is in session territory, to my mind. But who is Drosner writing for? A layaudience for whom Miller, Bud, and Coors products of 4.2-5% is normal? Or a craft beer geek audience for whom 5% is sessionable and 7% is average? If you're a Miller Lite drinker, Leine's Summer Shandy is the same strength as your regular beer. Something just doesn't sit right with me here. In the context of an article about beers to beat the summer heat, “low alcohol” doesn't seem applicable to “shandies” which aren't significantly weaker than the macro brews which dominate the American beer market.