Summer Shandy // 3 Ways

5 from 1 vote

A triple take on the summer shandy! One classic, one watermelon and one campari!! These are the simplest and easiest summer drinks!

Prep Time5

Cook Time0

Total Time5

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: American

Servings: people

Author: Gaby Dalkin

Ingredients

For the Original Orange Shandy

2 cups Florida’s Natural No Pulp Orange Juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup sparkling water
3 12-ounce bottles chilled light beer (I prefer a Hefeweizen)
orange peel for garnish

For the Campari Orange Shandy

2 cups Florida’s Natural No Pulp Orange Juice
4-6 ounces Campari
½ cup fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 12-ounce bottles chilled light beer (I prefer a Hefeweizen)
Lime peel for garnish

For the Watermelon Orange Shandy

1 cup Florida’s Natural No Pulp Orange Juice
1 cup fresh watermelon juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup sparkling water
3 12-ounce bottles chilled light beer (I prefer a Hefeweizen)
orange slice or watermelon slice for garnish

Instructions

Regardless of the version you are making, combine all the ingredients for the specific shandy in a large pitcher and stir to combine. Chill until ready to serve. No need to serve over ice if served directly from the fridge.

Notes

Chill everything before you build. Beer, juice, glasses, even the salt. Adding ice to room-temp anything dilutes the drink in 90 seconds and kills the carbonation.
Don't skip the pinch of salt. A teaspoon per batch sounds like a lot, but it sharpens the citrus and tames the beer's bitterness. Trust me on this one.
Use no-pulp orange juice for clarity. Pulp clouds the drink and changes the texture. If all you have is pulp OJ, run it through a fine-mesh strainer first.
Pour the beer last, slowly, down the side of the glass. Tilt the glass at 45 degrees, slow pour. Aggressive pours destroy the head and waste the carbonation that makes a shandy refreshing.
Stick to a 2:1 beer-to-juice ratio for the classic. More juice and you've got a juice spritzer. More beer and you've buried the orange.
For the Campari version, build the bitter and citrus first, then top with beer. Stir the Campari, OJ, lime, and salt together until uniform. Then pour the beer over. Skipping this step gives you streaky drinks where the Campari sinks.
Make watermelon juice fresh. Bottled watermelon juice tastes like cough syrup. Blend ripe seedless watermelon, strain through cheesecloth, done in 3 minutes.
Express the citrus peel over the glass. Take a strip of orange peel, twist it over the drink, then drop it in. The oils on top of the peel are where the fragrance lives.
Pitchers, not single drinks, for entertaining. Multiply the recipe and combine everything except the beer in a pitcher. Pour individual glasses, top each with beer at serving. Repeat as the pitcher empties.
Use a wide stemless glass, not a pint glass. A wide bowl gives the citrus aroma room to bloom. Pints are for straight beer; shandies want the open surface.

Nutrition