Germans put soda in beer?

http://www.ratebeer.com/forums/beer-and-coke-in-germany_122675.htm
would be a sin if it was good beer, but it isn't. No loss mixing beck's + soda.
On the flipside, I doubt anyone is going to mix a good sipping whiskey... or make a margarita with a 30 year old 100% agave tequilla. craft beers are also safe from that insanity.

 

Look up the radler or the biermischgetränke. Story I always heard is that German cyclists would cut their beer with soda or lemonade so that they could ride, get a drink, and then get home without dying. Now known as a shandy, as a catch all name. Someone with a better knowledge of this drink will surely come in and correct me but I think that's at least generally accurate.

 

Yes, they do this. I have a couple of friends either from Germany or that have lived in Germany and they told me about it. One time I was with my friend that used to live in Germany and we met up with 2 girls that were visiting Florida from Germany. We went to a German pub on the beach and they ordered something like this - a wheat beer mixed with Ginger Ale or Sprite. Can't remember what they called it - this may shed some light (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandy#Biermischgetr.C3.A4nke). I didn't even want to try it and kind of laughed, but these chicks said it was a normal thing in Germany - especially during the summer to drink these half beer/half soda mixes, because according to them it was more refreshing. Blecch!

 

There are several variations, but mainly youngsters drink it. Radler, Diesel, and so on.

 

If my knowledge is correct here, they put lemonade in their beer in the Spring and Summer to help refresh and hydrate all the cyclists. It's common place in Munich I believe. As for the soda and beer, I've seen it, and they even import Steigl beer mixed with grapefruit soda in a lot of places here in California.

 

what gets me more is when they turn a very nice reisling into s "spritzer" in the summer by adding club soda. argh!

For insight into their minds: good white wines and good beers abound in germany, so they take both for granted somewhat. Just as they take good pork, cheeses, and breads for granted. They're swimming in all of them. unfortunately, often in a sea of soda.

 

Yeah, cola + bier, lemonade + bier, lemon-lime + bier. Sad, but a lot of young folks grew up on coca cola. Beer is seen by quite a few as boring old folks drink.

 

Diesels... and Radlers... both very common. In fact many German breweries even bottle their own.

 

Its not that unusual for people to do that. It is called a shandy.

 

Shandy is a term I am familiar with in England, not Germany. Local terms.

 

They don't just do it with iffy beers like Becks, they also do it with good ones like Augustiner and Tegernseer. I studied abroad for a year in Munich in college and went back for a summer internship later, and it was pretty common for even the most beer-loving German friends of mine to have one like that occasionally. It's refreshing and can actually be pretty tasty. My favorite combination was the Cola-Weißbier, which I tried to emulate the other night for the first time in at five years or more. Apparently 50/50 is not the way it was mixed for me in the restaurant in my apartment complex -- I'm thinking a 2:1 beer:cola ratio is appropriate (and in the U.S. you would definitely want to use Mexican coke to get it right, not the high fructose corn syrup variety which probably wouldn't balance quite right). The other most common ones were a Radler (lager and Limonade -- "European" lemonade which is sort of like Sprite except much less sweet) and a Russ (Weißbier and Limonade), Radler meaning cyclist (since it's so light you can have it at the end of the night and bike home after) and Russ meaning Russian.

 

Also, you have to keep in mind that the local good beers over there are 50 cents to one Euro per half liter in stores and around three Euro (four or five bucks) per half liter in bars, and those prices are Munich scale, and Munich is actually one of the priciest cities in Germany.

 

My son went to Germany 4 years ago and said that his favorite brew was a German wheat beer mixed with a lemon-line soda like Sprite. So it is commonplace.

 

Did a study abroad in Germany and really enjoyed a radler during a hot day. I have yet to get one in the US that tasted right. I think it's whatever they were using as the pop that I can't accurately emulate.

 

at least 90+% of their beer sold isn't American adjunct lager.

(not that I'm defending the radlers)

 

There are all kinds of different things going on with great beera in Germany. The Radler is a favorite, the Diesel is a bit weird, but they're totally into mixing things like that - very popular to mix Coke and Fanta Orange for a Spezi. Just different strokes. Last summer in Heidelberg my Mom got a Banana Weizen. While I didnt like it, I applaud them for creativity! I'd take a German Hefe & grape Koolaide any day over that crap that Leinenkugels is puking out.

 

Definitely. That Limonade isn't even remotely similar to Sprite or 7-Up, even if those were made with cane sugar. I think you could find "European Lemonade" at some grocery stores if you looked hard, and failing that I would bet that some mixture of cane sugar Sprite (Mexican Sprite?) and plain soda water could help approximate a Radler.

 

Go to the international section of your larger supermarkets. You're looking for fizzy lemonade/limeade depending on the store. German limonade (limo-nah-duh) is delish, and toally different from any citrus soda we sell on a large scale here.

 

That said, Squirt gets closest to what you're looking for, IMO.