Okay, so while I was travelling -- not in China, but in Russia -- I ran across a couple of French people who engaged in the bizarre practice of combining beer (Siberian beer, no less) with, uh, Sprite.

While not exactly the beer connoiseur myself, I still felt a bit of revulsion at the whole thing.

I talked to a few others who had not only heard of but had tried the damn things themselves and seemed to enjoy it. Most of these people were from famously pansy nations like France and Switzerland.

Google says this strange combination is known as a Shandy. Anyone want to comment on this very strange drink?

I mean, I'm sure someone has to have mentioned this in the forum, but I did a search for "Shandy" and nothing came up.

BTW, the only reason I bring this up was Zima made me remember it [goats.com]

There's a practice in Spain of mixing a lemon/lime soda with wine, to make a sangria.

This is usually done to make up for the quality of the wine (the lack of quality, that is).

I suspect that Shandy is the same sort of thing - I can't drink this beer straight, so I'll juice it a bit with something to help. Then I can get right proper drunk.

And heck, it might make Bud palatable.

I believe I was in a local pub near Glasgow when my host ordered us a round of shandies on a blistering (75 F) day. It was 1/2 beer and 1/2 lemonade - the lemonade of course being the carbonated kind that for the love of all things I do not know why I cannot buy in my home country. 'My host' was an older gentleman, so I do not know how 'hard core' such an offering is, but it did not seem 'hip' or pansy, etc.

Unfortunately, aren't there some laws about snakebites in the UK (you can get them in the U.S. - 1/2 hard cider and 1/2 beer.) I believe that the high alcohol content of the UK cider led to a bit too much additional extra hooliganism. (the extra hooliganism being mostly the norm)

In Response to zamphir (#20451):

well, real sangria is supposed to be fruit added and soaked

In Response to Dynedain (#20465):

well, real sangria is supposed to be fruit added and soaked

Yes. Because the Spanish don't know how to make real sangria.

My aunt drinks shandy. She's not exactly a high-class dame ... ok, she's a construction worker who lives in a bus in outback Queensland. I don't necessarily approve of her drinking habits, but I would never call her either hip nor pansy.* That's about the limit of my exposure to shandy. (Although I have been known to mix low quality beer with rasberry cordial. Mostly to annoy my friends).

*Although she does know the Silmarillion by heart. Go figure.

If we are in a pub for only a drink or two and one of us is driving (usually the person who stops the "drink or two" from degenerating into an 8-hour farce), (s)he'll have a shandy.

I believe it is because it is impossible to sit in a pub with your friends and not have a drink in front of you. Having a shandy keeps you well below the legal driving limit, makes you feel "normal" and also avoids the shame of having a half of something in front of you. Everyone knows that if you have a glass of beer in front of you (as opposed to a pint), then you are morally reprehensible and likely to steal and consume other's offspring.

As it was explained to me whilst touring England and Ireland, Shandy is/was a way to skirt Britain's rules about drinking age. At 18, one can go into any pub and order/drink beer, wine, or spirits. But at 15, the teens can go into the pub and order Shandy (beer mixed with either lemonade or lemon/lime soda in a 50/50 proportion). It actually is quite refreshing on a hot day, as the resultant lower alcohol content does not dehydrate you as much as beer straight does.

My co-worker says that Shandies are surprisingly good. So I might have to try it sometime, what type of beer would be good to use?

In Response to GeminiCrash (#20505):

My co-worker says that Shandies are surprisingly good. So I might have to try it sometime, what type of beer would be good to use?

Zima. [goats.com]

In Response to Deathalicious (#20508):

You know, honestly, I've never considered Zima a beer so I don't think of it when I think of putting some kind of beer in something. Something, something.

In Response to zamphir (#20468):

Hmmm... well, I reckon it's just like any other kind of drink. There are two ways to make any drink:

Cheap, fast, and okay

or

Expensive, slow, and great

For example, in the US, one can call the crap made from combining a dry mixture of sugar, citric acid, and artificial flavoring and coloring with water "Lemonade".

One can also take a couple dozen lemons, squeeze them, add water and superfine sugar, and call that lemonade.

One is cheaper, quicker, and is fine for quenching thirst; the other is more expensive, takes at least 5-10 minutes to prepare, and tastes absolutely fantastic. Both are called "Lemonade". But I think no one would question which one is "real". It's the one that's not made out of fake stuff.

If you go to a swanky Spanish tapas bar and order Sangria, it will have soaked fruit in it and the wine used to make it would have been perfectly drinkable on its own. If you go to a Mexican food store, you can buy "Sangria" (which often doesn't even contain wine) in a two-liter soda bottle.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if more Spanish consumed the sprite version. Everywhere is getting a little more corporate and less handmade when it comes to foods. When I had a friend from the UK over, I wanted to show her good, real biscuits (different from the UK term; these aren't dry cookies). I asked around for suggestions for the best place to get biscuits. Everyone suggested, horror of horrors, KFC. I was also told that the freezer packs of dough made lovely biscuits too. Even after I insisted that I wanted to take her to a nice local joint, not some a fast food chain, they still insisted that KFC had the best in the area.

Although local/outdoor markets are still popular in most parts of the world, more and more people are buying what they need in supermarket/department type stores.

I'm sure that Sangria predates Sprite, and that once the only kind of Sangria you could get was the one with fruit. But I reckon that ultimately it's the Sprite version that will prevail except on the rarest of occasions.

In Response to Deathalicious (#20510):

Or maybe "sangria" is a more generic word than you all think it is.

In Response to GeminiCrash (#20505):

Quote:

what type of beer would be good to use?

Any lager is fine ... I've ordered using Sam Adams, Yeungling, and a variety of local beers. You want at least some hop character in there, because it's going to get masked by the mixer. If you order with Bud, Coors, or (heaven forfend) something lite, you may notice that the beer has become darker, and has more body than you're used to.

Important safety note: if you order in a bar, it's generally not a good idea to add the Sprite/ginger ale/whatever carbonated soda beverage to the lager. The high-pressure nozzle thing that the bartender uses to dispense the CSB will cause the beer to achieve a state I call hyperfoamy and replicate the famed vinegar-and-baking soda nerd volcano.

It is unwise to annoy your bartender in this fashion. So CSB in first, then a gentle pour of lager.

In Response to gtyrrell (#20515):

At most bars that I've been to, it's the bartender's responsibility to fill the glasseas and know which order ingredients go in.

In Response to Dynedain (#20520):

Absolutely true. But if the bartender has never heard of the drink (and none I've ever ordered from in the States has), and you just describe it as "half beer, half ginger ale", it's a 50-50 proposition if the fountain o' foam occurs.

Just sayin'.

In Response to Deathalicious (#20510):

While on a trip to France my Senior year of highschool, I got a taste of REAL sangria. It was our first night in Paris and we had been told that we were allowed to have one (1) alcoholic beverage with dinner, so I chose a sangria because I knew generally what it was and that I was probably going to like it. And it was quite frankly the best drink I had ever had and thoroughly enjoyed the bits of fruit.