Pineapple Ginger Blonde Shandy

Do you know what a shandy is?

No, not a shanty. A shandy.

A shandy is a beer cocktail, often made with a fizzy soda or a juice of some sort. It's lighter in alcohol, since it's generally only half beer, and it offers a whole lot of different flavor options.

The nice folks at Guinness challenged me to make a shandy with their Guinness Blonde beer, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. I wanted something that was a little sweet, but not to much. Maybe a little spice. Maybe not orange juice, because that's a pretty common ingredient.

I wanted something refreshing rather than heavy, but not so lightweight that it was watery. Something that would work over ice or not. Something easy to make by the glass.

They sent me (along with some Guinness Blonde) a pretty pitcher and some glasses. But I didn't really want to make a whole pitcher of shandy. I mean, it's just me here. I'm not that thirsty.

One glass at a time was my goal, because I didn't want to lose the fizz.

So I started fiddling around. What could I make?

In the end, I decided that pineapple juice concentrate would add nice flavor. Since I didn't dilute it to drinking consistency, the pineapple held its own against the other ingredients.

Then I wanted something fizzy and chose ginger beer. The non-alcoholic stuff. It has a stronger ginger bite than you'll find in ginger ale. But hey, if you can't find ginger beer, then ginger ale would work, too.

See, I'm making it easy.

Pineapple Ginger Blonde Shandy

Generous spoon of pineapple juice concentrate (about 2 tablespoons)
1/2 bottle Guinness Blonde
1/2 can ginger beer

Put the pineapple juice concentrate into a glass and add the beer and ginger ale. Eyeball it - it's not that critical. Stir and serve. With a straw, if you like.

On a hot day, I'd suggest starting this with a glass full of ice, which means you'll probably be using 1/3 or even 1/4 of the bottle of beer and the can of ginger beer.

See, it's a nice light cocktail. Did I mention refreshing? Yes, I think I did.

Cheers!

Thanks to the nice folks at Guinness for sponsoring this post and providing products as well.

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