Leinenkugels Summer Shandy

Brewed by Leinenkugel Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Fruit Beer
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin USA

12 oz bottle. Pours a very pale cloudy yellow with a very small white head. It has a very strong lemonade smell. It has a strong lemonade taste and a chemical or cleaner aftertaste that I can’t quit place. It doesn’t taste like beer. I’m embarrassed I bought this but found a store with a pick six different beers in one six pack plan and am trying to sample a lot of beers. This was a horrible beer.

Bottle, This beer poured a cloudy light amber color with almost no head. The Aroma was of lemons with a hint of hops & malt. It tasted refreshing with a pleasurable aftertaste. Good summertime brew.

12 oz bottle. Pours cloudy yellow with white head. I pick up the lemonade aroma the moment I start pouring, and as I get my nose into it, that’s the majority of what’s there; a few grainy notes are back there, but mostly lemon. The flavor is also almost entirely lemonade. The graininess is a little more distinct, but not much. The finish is lemons and carbonation. Refreshing enough, but this is not beer.

On tap, served in a shaker. Hazy golden pour with a thin head of off-white foam that quickly faded away. Hardly any lacing. The aroma was mainly lemons...a hint of sweet malt underneath. It tasted like a light beer spiked with artificial lemon juice. Finished a little dry. Light-bodied with moderate carbonation. A decent drink for a hot day. Not very beery though.

This is almost like a malternative lemonade. Pours lemonade yellow with a fizzy white head. Nose is lemons, and the might be some light malt in there. Tastes like lemonade, too. Not a lot of distinction here. Are they going after the former Zima drinkers?

Light amber color. Aroma of lemons and indistinct maltiness. Taste is almost precisely like carbonated lemonade (unsurprisingly). Very little malt/beer character comes through (which makes me like it less), although far more drinkable and refreshing than any other Leinenkugel that I have had before. Might be a decent malternative by the pool on a hot day. Even so, it’s a big gimmick and not really a beer.

This beer was one of the worst I have ever sampled. It poured a cloudy straw color with a big white head. The head left some nice lacing around the glass, though. But that’s pretty much where the good attributes of this one leaves off. And that isn’t saying a whole lot. The nose was of lemons and stale barley. The flavors were extremely sour and unpleasant. The lemonade that was advertised on the bottle was overpowering. There wasn’t much else in the flavors that I could taste. It was just lemon and sour and that’s it. And it was awful.

Summer Shandy has some great characteristics especially for the summer. The beer is very refreshing and perfect thirst quencher on a hot day. It is very drinkable and I can enjoy several in one sitting. The sweetness of the lemonade is definitely not overpowering. The aroma is very sweet. There is little to no hops/malt present in the nose.