“Radfahrer,” or “radler” as it’s commonly translated, means “cyclist” in German. It also refers to a mixture of beer and lemonade or beer and lemon soda.
The legend is that an Austrian innkeeper had a large group of cyclists arrive and had to stretch his limited beer supply by cutting it with lemon soda. The mixture became popular in warm weather, especially among young and active imbibers, and is now sold all over the world in some form or another.
At the Wunderbar, located inside Kansas City’s premier Austrian restaurant, Grünauer, bar manager Scott Beskow always has some creative version of the traditional radler on his drink menu—and his recipes always call for fresh-squeezed fruit juice.
Here's one of Beskow's simple, refreshing radler recipes:
Ingredients
.5 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
.5oz fresh-squeezed lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
5 oz sparkling water
Stiegl Goldbräu Lager
Instructions:
Double strain the juices into a half-liter beer glass, add remaining ingredients in order listed, then garnish with fresh wedges of lemon and lime.
Read more about Wunderbar's fresh-juiced cocktails
Read more about creative beer cocktails
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