OK, OK, enough already with the “alcopop” comments. It seems you can’t enjoy a quaffable refreshing brew like Leinenkugel Summer Shandy without the beer police calling you out. But you know what? I really don’t care. My motto for beer is if it tastes good, drink it, and if you like it, well that’s what really counts.

Shandy is, traditionally, a mixture of lager and lemonade or lemon soda. It’s meant to be tart and refreshing, quaffable, and moderate in alcohol. I prefer to mix my own, but there are some bottled and canned shandies you can buy premixed. Leinenkugel Summer Shandy is one of them.

Leinenkugel Summer Shandy is Leinie’s version of the traditional lemon lager mix. I bought a 12-pack sampler of four different varieties, 4 cans each of the beer under review today plus orange and lemon beery variations of shandy. For $9.99, you can’t beat it, and its union made, too (take that Dick Yuengling).

 Leinenkugel Summer Shandy is made with pale and wheat malts per the website and honey and natural lemonade flavor according to the can. It’s hopped with Clusters and has an alcohol content of 4.2% by volume.

Leinenkugel Summer Shandy pours to a hazy yellow color with a huge rocky head formation and a big lemony nose with a bit of crisp malt hidden somewhere underneath. Taking a sip, there isn’t much of beer about this one at first, being more like lemonade than anything else. A bit of lager maltiness does emerge however, if only a bit, and the finish is balanced by lemony zest more than anything else.

A beer I’d buy again? I might for hot weather quaffing. It was certainly refreshing enough after a 4 mile walk home from Taco Mac on a hot Labor Day evening. It is a good example of what it’s supposed to be, and a beer that can be welcome in the pantheon of any respectable beer drinker.

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