In Canada, Shandy was a 2/3 beer, 1/3 ginger ale. First time I had the lemonade version, I was amazed.
There’s also ‘scrumpy’, which if I’m remembering correctly was 2/3 stout, 1/3 cider, and which is exquisite.
Scrumpy back home was cider of a home made or local variety, presumably made from scrumped (stolen) apples.
Cider and stout was a Black Velveteen (often mistakenly called a Black Velvet, which is stout and champers).
Here’s another one for our British friends…in Boston (USA), where I grew up, an old-time drink was a “musty”-this is a 50/50 mix of lager and ale. This hasn’t been a popular drink in many years…did it ever exist in England?
Interesting. My understanding is “scrumps” are windfall apples, and scrumpy derives from that, but apparently “to scrump” as a verb means to steal apples from an orchard. Fascinating that there’s such a specific word for that.
Anyhow, for me, “scrumpy” is a type of farmhouse cider that is unfiltered, cloudy, and a bit rough around the edges.
Aye, ye’d best be puttin’ yer dukes up if yer gunna peer askance a’ me shandy, laddie…
Sorry. Just couldn’t resist the bad Brit accent*… but I DO love shandys. Took myself to London and had as many as I could in a week. It never occured to me to try to order one in the States… I assumed that we couldn’t match the clear, fizzy “lemonade”, so why bother?
*As my rugby coach is wont to say: “Bluddy Colonists…”
Oh, is THAT what it was? 
On a hot day I’ll have a bitter shandy - easier to use as a thirst quencher. I grew up believing that ginger beer (note the original non-alcoholic variety) was the fizzy element.
It’s not just a Brit thing - the French might have a “Panaché”, lager style beer and lemonade (alos available ready made) and I think in Barcelona it was called a 'shampoo" or something … mind you they also put fizzy water or lemonade in red wine to make “summer wine”.
All that said the BEST shandy I’ve ever had was at The Pelican Inn, Marin County CA !!
Ai Ai AI!! Sangria!
Back in the Dark Ages and in Spain, we just called it cerveza con limonada (ratios to taste), it would be served in a porrón on the middle of the table. It was very much a teenagers’ drink. You only got it in the kind of places likely to have porrones, such as dark taverns serving great tapas or beach garitos (the kind which the EU says we can’t have any more starting next year… we’ll see how that plays out) serving sandy paella. If you asked for cerveza con limonada in a mid-scale or upscale establishment, the consequences might have ranged from the waiter having a sudden attack of tinnitus, to an icy explanation of “that is not available” or a ticket with a price high enough to discourage asking for such a thing Ever Again.
There is a prebottled one now and this thread told me why it’s called Shandy, I’d never heard the name before the prebottled hit the market.
Tinto de verano is red wine with soda water (gaseosa or sifón, the gaseosa has a twist of lemon and the sifón doesn’t; no actual lemonade should be used). It was drunk without a special name (mostly by women and children) for decades, the name was created by La Casera during a publicity campaign a couple years back. Now it’s sold prebottled and this year they’ve also come up with blanco de verano (white wine with soda).
I came 6 times last night… I need to put this chi into stone throwing… or something… sex would be even better.
I was done with a round of golf a few years ago and sitting in the bar having a beer when an English gentlemen came in and ordered a shandy from the bartender. She didn’t know what it was, so he explained it to her. I commented on how odd but refreshing it sounded, so he bought me one. I’ve been drinking them on hot days ever since. It doesn’t coat the mouth like a straight beer does.
[slight hijack] So to the English Dopers: what we call “lemonade” here in the states is a drink made from (usually) fresh squeezed lemons, water, and sugar. It can be pink or yellow, and can be highly acidic , and usually contains some of the lemon pulp. It’s normally not carbonated, and it can be sour or sweet. If I wanted to make a shandy here that did justice to it’s European roots, would we use something like 7UP, Sprite, etc.? Or is it more like club soda with a squeeze of lemon?
If you’re using a lager-type beer, I think 7-Up would be OK because people sometimes use a dash of lime to make the aforementioned lager & lime. I don’t think soda water + lemon juice would taste much like British-style lemonade, because it’s not actually very lemony.
We call your type of lemonade “cloudy” or “old style”, “traditional” etc. Most supermarkets sell carbonated versions of it. The still version is not that common and would be made by hand, at least I’ve never seen it in shops. Maybe at a village fete.
Agreed about that being what Scrumpy is in the UK.
I know scrumping from reading old books where the kids would go scrumping for apples, get caught by some redfaced farmer or gamekeepers and have their ears boxed.
Yup, either of those would be absolutely fine. I’d sometimes use them myself over here anyway.
I always hope that Americans holidaying in the UK, especially those driving, realise that cider here is not only alcoholic but often stronger than the draught lager on sale next to it. There was one story I read once - set in England, written by an American - where the main character was driving so didn’t want to drink, so just had a couple of ciders.
(It’s probably a good thing if any British tourists make the opposite mistake in the US).
I’ve heard a 50/50 stout and cider mix referred to as a Black Velvet, and wondered what sort of person would instead waste champagne by mixing it with stout.
The best thing about the stout/cider mix is this though:
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Pour half a pint of (clear, fizzy) cider into the pint glass and stir it until fairly flat.
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Carefully fill the remaining space with stout.
You end up with the bizarre spectacle of this opaque stout upper half floating on the lower transparent amber half.
Childish and refreshing.