I’m going to be a snob and say that I don’t think this makes the best radler, but since technically, this is what is more typically used in the North, it still stands that this would be a “German Style Radler!” And hey, beggars can’t be choosers, am I right!? Other Variations In the Northern parts of Germany, a Radler is sometimes called “Alterwasser” and is more commonly made with a Pilsner style beer rather than a Helles (lager).Ī Pils beer is probably going to be way easier to find in the US than a Helles, surprisingly. A Budweiser is not going to suffice here! In The North Therefore, a lot of people will say that you can just go with any lighter lager style of beer, but let’s be serious here. The problem with this is the in the US, as much as the craft brew scene is taking over, I still found it quite difficult to find a true Helles. So, I am going to argue that if you want an authentic Radler, then a Helles is the way to go. In Bavaria, where the Radler Lemon Beer originates from, a classic Radler is going to be made with a Helles beer. Ok, so now that we’ve got that whole lemonade debacle cleared up, what kind of beer should you use? Well, this depends. Basically, a German Radler is just simply Beer and Sprite! Simple enough, right? Well…maybe…. So, if you are looking for a Radler recipe, and it calls for “Lemonade” it’s not going to taste like a fresh, authentic Radler that you would get in Deutschland. “Lemonade” in Germany is actually going to be something like a Sprite or 7-Up. But, as I pointed out in my 20 Other Drinks Besides Beer To Try in Germany post, “ Limonade” in Germany is NOT what Americans think of as the sweet, tart, lemony drink we all love in the summertime. In fact, even IN Germany, this is how it’s described. Oftentimes, you’ll hear that a German Radler is half beer half lemonade. I’ll get into a bit of the history, variations, and background of a Radler German Beer below, but I hate having to scroll through millions of paragraphs to get to a recipe just as much as the next guy, so I’m going to cut to the chase and then you can hang around later if you feel like. A Radler! Here in Germany, it’s easy to just go buy a delicious bottle of this “German lemon beer” but in the US it’s a bit harder to come by. Nope, I headed straight for the liquid bread!īut alas, I’ve come a long way and now, there is one German drink that you’ll find in my hand on a hot, summer day. But what is an even odder twist of events is that the beer that I fell for first in Bavaria was a Dunkel (dark) beer….not even some “easier to drink” light beer. YMMV.If you can actually believe it, I wasn’t a beer drinker before moving to Germany. Finish was semi-dry as a result & highly refreshing after a night's work at the post office. It was sweetish, but neither sweet nor bitter/tart. The taste was not purely grapefruit, but more akin to Ocean Spray Pink Grapefruit Drink (note: NOT Juice). Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, not watery, but not far beyond it, either. ![]() Nose was definitely of grapefruit, but it was much less sweet than many radlers that I have encountered. Color was a lightly-hazy light-pink (SRM = N/A). It foamed nicely to form two-plus fingers of foamy, soapy, rocky, pinkish-white head with modest retention. I Crack!ed open the vent & gave it an inverted C-Line Glug for the first time in quite a while. It came in a 550-ml CAN so it barely made a dent in filling the stein, but it was all okay by me. ![]() I pulled out my 0.5L Paulaner glass stein especially for this ocCANsion. ![]() What a coup for The CANQuest (tm) to find this in a four-pack of shrink-wrapped CANs during my latest visit to the Friendly Greek Bottle Shop (FGBS)! I am very excited to drink, review & rate this one.įrom the CAN: "Brewed in Germany" "Since 1634". As far as this kind of stuff goes it's OK but there are better ones out there. It's quite crisp with carbonation, and dextrinous. It's a little too on the soda side for me, but it's not bad. It's not too sweet in the finish though, and it lingers shortly and then fades away. I'm not finding any bitterness although I'm sure there's some there. Interestingly enough, you'll never find a grapefruit that tastes like this no matter how much sugar you put on it so it really is like a hard candy. There's a light bit of beer to it, which is nice, but the sweet grapefruit dominates. Except for the pith it smells like a pink grapefruit candy. The aroma is of sweet, sugary grapefruit, pith and all. The head is holding surprisingly well though if it were a soda it would have no head at all by now. I can hear the bubbles bursting like you do with soda pop. It's a hazy pink, which was expected, beneath a full head of slightly pinkish foam. This one is only 2.5% ABV so you'd have to drink a lot of these to get drunk, and I'm pretty sure it's loaded with calories. Notes via stream of consciousness: You have to rate a radler for what it is, which is soda pop mixed with beer.
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