Märican Biere Bought and Drunk...

I've run into a fair number of other drinkers who think the concept of beer mixers is crazier than beers made with zany ingredients. I think that's easing up a little, but it's still there. If anything, I think the casual drinker is probably more open to it. I think the geeks tend to lump mixers in with stuff like Bud Light Strawberita and such.

 

Fruit in a Randall: innovative; fruit on the rim of your glass: repulsive. There's no rhyme or reason to it.

 

I preface this all by saying that I detest beer cocktails, shandies, radlers, and fruit on the rim of the glass.

In my (geeky) opinion, which probably isn't a great proxy for the vox populi, stuff like Randall'ing/preposterous adjuncts (e.g., Doritos brown ales...which sounds ghastly, btw) aren't innovative, they're just novelties. I don't take them seriously, but I also don't think they're meant to be taken seriously. (And that doesn't also mean they might not sometimes be tasty.) They're intrinsically different from something like Stiegl Radler, however, which is proffered as a respectable alternative for the beer drinker, which I interpret as something very different than a one-off novelty.

I don't know anything about Germans view on such things, and probably only slightly more (at best) about Americans' views. But I know this much: personally, I just can't abide half-beer, half-soda/juice/seltzer water/whatever, mostly because they just don't taste good.

 

I'm that weird guy who likes gimmicky beers...hence I bought and tried a colabier. I might roll my eyes at something genuinely stupid (like the ones made with cereal), but I like pumpkin beers, spiced winter warmers, fruit beers, mixers, etc.
I'm even guilty of drinking those stupid Rita drinks when I'm in Las Vegas or at a wedding or something.
Most of them don't really taste like beer to me, so I don't always associate them with it...even if they are malt-based.

 

Are IPAs considered "bier"?

 

Does anyone know how long lemonade and beer have been mixed in Germany? I think it was already around in cans when I reached drinking age. I remember the old Henninger Radler can with two labels - one side with Radler, the other with Alsterwasser (Radler for Southern, Alsterwasser for Northern Germany). Both sides with kind of ancient, art-deco pictures that make you believe this stuff has been around for at least a hundred years.
And does anyone know the "Red Alster" that is quite popular in the North? I saw it everywhere in and around Lübeck a few years ago. Instead of lemonade, raspberry lemonade is used.

 

Up until the time that Henninger came out with the Radler (1995), at home and in bars & restaurants it was mixed "manually" as opposed to being pre-mixed.

 

I know, I'd just like to know how far back this kind of "tradition" goes.
Reading through the last posts here, I'm also surprised that Radler or other mixed beer drinks aren't really popular in the US, the country that invented sodas.

 

I had my first (and probably last) Radler in late 1990 in Munich and it was the manually-mixed version Einhorn mentions.

I've read where it was introduced in the 1920s when bicycling was becoming a big past time in Germany, but I can't find that immediate source.

 

the US invented soda somewhat as a counter to booze -- soft drink/hard drink. I can't imagine anyone mixing the two and I was surprised the first time I saw it done in Germany. But I'd also known of the English Shandy, so I guess it wasn't terribly surprising -- just surprising in the German beer culture.

 

I must admit, as much as I despise all the mixed beer drinks that have been occupying the shelves for the last decade or so, as a German I have a weak side for a Radler or a Ruß. It's something you grew up with, something you were allowed to drink before you were allowed to drink a real beer.
I remember a holiday in southern France when I was about twelve and my parents allowed me to have a .25l-bottle of Panaché (the French equivalent to Radler).
Also a cycling tour outside of Munich a few years ago: reaching the Biergarten of Kloster Schäftlarn south of Munich and enjoying a Maß of Ruß in the midday sun is priceless.
And even today, if it's early in the day and/or you have to drive, you choose a Radler.

 

From a quick search on The Googles:
The invention of Radler has been widely attributed to the Munich gastronomer Franz Xaver Kugler in 1922. However, the recipe had been mentioned as early as 1912.[1] Nowadays, Radler is drunk not only in Bavaria, but also in all of Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Netherlands, Romania and Slovenia.

There's also a mention of Kugler in the Beer Drinkers Guide to Munich, and the pub Kugler Alm....

Prosit!!

 

First radler experience, after having avoided it for years, was when one of my brothers unintentionally purchased a Maß of the manually mixed variety outside at the Augustiner keller mid-summer. Ultimately not as offensive as some make it sound, but I can't imagine ever drinking a liter of it. Too sweet, too acidic.
On another note, the big Italian breweries started releasing radlers this summer and they are, well, just, not very good.

 

*BARF*

 

Lakefront's, of Milwaukee, new Dunkelweizen.

 

From my hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico - La Cumbre Brewing Co's Project Dank IPA

WHOA - when I popped this bottle cap, the air was suddenly filled with that delicious hop aroma... and the taste..? ahhh-mazing!

 

My friends... my taste buds have been wonderfully wrecked this evening for the first time in a while.

 

Amazing pic!! Love how the background has a soft, pastel-like painting feel to it.... Super!!

 

Thank you - I shot with my Nikon D7100 & downloaded on my iPhone 4S for editing with my fav apps.

 

Dave, I sometime wonder if Nate has some Hollywood type backdrop paintings that he brings out for his photographs. His photographs always look idyllic!!

Cheers!

Jack