Turn your beer into a ginger shandy for a refreshing twist

Although many might disagree, it's possible to end up with leftover beer. Maybe you have beer from a party, but you usually drink more wine at home. Perhaps someone brought a variety you don't particularly like, a nice touch, but it takes up a lot of space. Or maybe you simply found some ice-cold (and properly stored!) beer at the back of the freezer that had gone past its prime. These are all occasions for a little creativity, and in all of them, a shandy is perfect. It's so delicious that you might even be tempted to make it yourself, even if you have leftover beer.

Shandy is a mixture of beer and another carbonated beverage, usually citrusy. The latter typically has a strong lemon flavor, and sometimes the beer is replaced with cider. Like radler, the ideal ratio for a shandy is half beer and half soda. However, it's quite a versatile drink. Ginger shandies, while perhaps less common today, are actually classics of the genre and date back to the shandy pubs of 19th-century England. Lighter beers work best, although a Guinness could also add a special touch. And while it's best to avoid sour beers to minimize acidity when citrus is added, they also work well in ginger shandy.

Time for some good, elegant shandies

Besides being delicious, ginger shandies fit perfectly into the low-alcohol category, eliminating the need to buy additional liquor or use a blender. If your beer base has 5% alcohol, for example, you'll obviously reduce your overall consumption by replacing some of it with ginger beer. You can also make a completely alcohol-free shandy using non-alcoholic beer.

Shandies also look more sophisticated than a cooler full of cans when you're hosting a casual brunch or summer barbecue. You might want to serve something a little more elaborate, but you don't want to spend all day measuring, shaking, and stirring. Instead, you can whip up a batch of shandies in advance or even on the spot without investing much time. They're also a clever way to stretch your beer if it's running low and the fun is just getting started. If you have enough ginger beer on hand, you can practically double your supply with just a few glasses.