Lemons in your beer? That notion may leave you with a sour taste in your mouth, but trust me, the combination really can work, and that shouldn’t be surprising. Nothing quenches the thirst on a hot summer day like a tall, ice-cold glass of lemonade. The tartness of the lemon makes it a perfect beverage ingredient, and what’s good for soft drinks should certainly be good for hard ones. Indeed, hard lemonade is a recent phenomenon here in the United States that has attracted quite a following.

Sliced lemons are sometimes served in German or American hefeweizens and kristalweizens, more so here in the United States than in Germany. They can make an already refreshing and restorative brew even more satisfying, though I don’t drink my wheat beers with lemon all the time.

If you go to Europe and ask for limonade or lemonade, what you’ll get will much more closely resemble a Sprite or 7-UP than what we Americans consider lemonade to be. In England or Ireland, this might be mixed with lager to form a shandy. The Germans do the same and call it a radlermass. It is the radlermass that Saxer claims is the inspiration for its Lemon Lager, though the beer is not mixed with lemon soda but rather has natural lemon flavor added during the lagering process.

Saxer Lemon Lager pours to a light golden-yellow color with a fizzy head that quickly fades. A steady stream of bubbles rises to the top of the beer. The nose is fairly non-descript with just a hint of lemon. The palate is rather thin bodied with a touch of lemony flavor, somewhat reminiscent of lemon soda and a sweet malty finish. No hops are discernible in the finish.

In some ways the beer is reminiscent of a fresh-baked lemon tart, complete with the lemon fruit and the sweet malt serving as the crust. This is a fairly light-bodied brew, and as such it’s a very refreshing summer brew. I’m not exactly sure what food I would match it with or even if I would try, but it does make an excellent before dinner drink.

Tomorrow, the weather forecast calls for a high of 92, a record for May 2nd here in Rhode Island. A perfect day for a cold glass of Saxer’s Lemon Lager.



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