Slammin’ Shandy
With the arrival of Summer, it marks the arrival of the “Summer Beer”. Usually brewed with Wheat and assorted citrus flavors, these beers are awesome for hot weather and compliment a BBQ any time. As a Home Brewer, I love this time of year. Summer Beer is one of the easiest and most satisfying of all the things I’ve done as a home brewer. It doesn’t require a lengthy fermentation, its supposed to be cloudy and lends it self to “session” consumption. You and gaggle of fellow beer geeks can sit on camp chairs in the garage on a summer night and drain a 5 gallon keg (Craig, JB, Chris and I did just such a thing). This is exactly what I was hoping for when I tinkered with an extract kit from Midwest. Its called “Bavarian Wheat” and its a very basic recipe. On its own, this batch was pretty unremarkable but once I got done with it, it was amazing. After fermentation, I reconstituted some Minute Maid Lemonade and combined the beer and lemonade in the keg. After carbonating and settling for a few days, this stuff would give Leines Shandy a run for its money. Going to make another batch of this for Nordic Fest.
