Follow Sean Inman to the best in craft beer
When our climate changed sun returns to SoCal, lighter beers will need to be added to the ‘fridge. One will be the Long Beach Beer Labs Rad Dad Calamansi Radler.
A half and half beer and juice popular amongst those who choose to exercise, or those who prefer to watch on TV.
Seltzers may be all the rage but I have yet to find one that is so much better than the N/A versions I buy at Trader Joe’s. I wish that the Radler was being talked about as much.
So let’s talk So Radler from The Bruery. Their pastry beers and Offshoot Hazies are leading their charge currently but they have a quartet of Radler that you should try. Grapefruit might be the best start to simulate some of the hop flavors but I lean towards the tangerine myself.
When I saw this label, I just couldn’t shake a sour face. Not being a kombucha or drinking vinegar fan has me not part of the target market, but the fact that Deschutes is mixing sour with sweet of Radler just confused me. This is a beer to check out the ratings for.
At a recent Boulevard tasting event, I tried out their Midwestern take on the Radler and maybe due to the heat or the underwhelming nature of the other beers that I tasted, it stuck out as the best of the bunch that day.
Fast forward to me getting an invite to meet and greet with the Widmer’s to taste their take on the Shandy. Sadly, I could not get off work to do so.
Then, my mom brings me some beer news from the Oregonian paper (cause she rolls old school with newsprint) and there is an ad for a Hopworks Radler.
One more item, then I promise to begin my dissertation. The Full Pint has a well thought out piece that recently posted on their site about alco-pops and the new wave of shandy-radler-hard root beers. The end sentence being, “I don’t hate them or want to see them go away, I’m just leery of where this is heading.”
One can be anti-radler or pro shandy or on the fence about hard root beer. (Which you should not be, I have had one and it was too much, and not in a good way) You can have your inside information about why they are being made. Economics or style exploration. But first, before any judgment can be passed, you have to try at least a couple if not more. After that, you have to filter it through the lens of history. These are not beer styles ripped out of whole cloth, these have been made in the past and will probably continue to be made in the future.
If, after that, you wish to call them an abomination upon the earth, then by all means vent your vitriol. But I would instead ponder that Full Pint question. Where is this heading? And why? Is it being led by consumer preference? A return to Old World roots? An attempt at more shelf space? Or is it some dark scheme aimed at underage drinkers?
Personally, I think it is a little from each of the columns.