Clara, radler y shandy: How do lemon beers differ?

We have talked on another occasion about which beers are best suited to be consumed during the summer season and, among the options we found on the shelf, we highlighted the Radler beers; that "cocktail" of beer with lemon suitable for all year round, whose prominence increases at this time of the year when temperatures force us to seek the maximum sensation of freshness.

In our country, we have a long tradition of combining - at the very moment of service - our popular pale beers with soda or lemonade. In many cases we refer to these mixtures as "claras" or "claras with lemon" to differentiate one from the other.

However, it is becoming increasingly common to find these ready-made mixtures in barrels, bottles, or cans, labelled as "Radler", a term adopted for the drink of beer with lemon, whose origins lie in Germany, almost a century ago. The idea of combining the taste of the beloved, traditional beer with a soft drink that would lower its alcohol content and further enhance the sensation of freshness, caused quite a stir at the time, especially among the amateur cyclists who rode through the Bavarian countryside. Hence the name Radler, which in German is a colloquial reference to cyclists.

Originally, a Radler mixed beer and lemon in equal parts, but when it was mixed by hand, the result was not always the same. Today, the most common percentages in bottled or draught Radlers are usually 60% beer and 40% lemonade, resulting in a drink with an alcohol content of around 3%, with a more moderate bitterness than that of the beer used to make it, and with an extra point of freshness thanks to the citric notes provided by the lemonade.