Short answer: a British invention that is half beer, half lemonade. Keeps you hydrated for all day patio sessions.
But you know us better than that, there is always more to the story.
You may be familiar with Hunky Dory, one of our flagship beers – it’s been around a while now.
Brewed for discerning women and confident men, I designed this beer to be more than beer. My theory was if I’m going to invest my calories in beer, I want some extras – so I added in green tea (for antioxidants) and lemon and orange zest (because I love a citrusy beer) and honey (reminds me of Winnie-the-Pooh).
Thanks to Hunky Dory (and its loyal fans) we’ve been zesting an entire crate of lemons every week for almost eight years now. That’s a lot of lemons. And we hate waste.
Enter: lemonade.
We started giving the lemons away to local restaurants to make lemonade. And as our hospitality room at the brewery got busier, we started making our own lemonade too so that we’d have a house-made non-alcoholic option for our guests.
One day, some of the brewery staff decided to experiment with mixing shandy. We are an innovative workplace, and we encourage experimentation. So, they tried every single beer we had mixed with lemonade. The winner, hands down, was a little unexpected. We had recently introduced the first sour beer to the shelves at the NSLC: Over the Top sour cranberry wheat beer had been a big hit in its debut.
People really appreciate beer that doesn’t taste like beer
And it turns out that Shandy that doesn’t taste like beer is also delicious. The
Shandy is an absolutely perfect mix of our Over the Top Cranberry Sour with sweet lemonade. It’s not too sweet, not too tart, really just right. Perfect for wine, cider AND beer lovers.
Oh, and it’s PINK. And freakin’ perfect for brunch.
Cheers!