With the arrival of the school year we pause to reflect on our summer experiences. We’re sure to miss the leisure of not having class and the relaxation of a day at the beach but another summer has gone by. As summer yields to fall we must also take a moment to remember Wisconsin’s favorite seasonal brew: Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy.

I apologize if you’re a fan of Wisconsin’s other popular summer brew, New Glarus Totally Naked. I must confess I think that Totally Naked is the superior beer of these two seasonal brews, but Summer Shandy better captures the essence of the summer season.

Its light lager base provides the perfect backdrop for the refreshing natural lemonade flavoring infused into the beer, providing a gentle citrus flavor while still maintaining its status as a beer.

I clarify that Summer Shandy is still identifiable as a beer due to the lack of beeriness in its sister drink, Leinenkugel’s Berry Weiss, which compromises its beer taste for a strong berry flavor, making it more of a wine cooler than a beer. Summer Shandy, while lacking a distinctive flavor of either hops or malt, still manages to convey a very mild bitterness beneath the citrus taste.

Although great beers have a unique and prominent taste that features either malt or hops, like the re-introduced Schlitz which is a great example of the old malt beers that made Milwaukee famous (although I’m told by beer connoisseurs older than myself that it’s not quite as good as the original), Summer Shandy makes a name for itself by being a seasonal beer that doesn’t strive to be a great beer, but a great drink.

If you have not had the opportunity to indulge yourself in the Shandy, I would suggest hunting a bottle down before it goes off the market for the fall. If you find that you’re too late to pick up some Summer Shandy, then keep it on your list of things to buy next summer.

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