I’ve encountered the following sentence in German: Eine Berliner Weiße mit Schuss.
The translation given was “A wheatbeer with syrup.”
What the heck kind of “syrup” goes in a beer over there in crazy Germany? 
And what’s the word “Berliner” mean exactly in that sentence?
-FrL-
I have found the answer to my own question here.
Apparently a “Berliner” is type of beer popular in the area around Berlin. It is very weak and, wikipedia says, “sour,” and for this reason is often mixed with a fruit-flavored syrup. And you drink it with a straw.
Okay then.
-FrL-
I ordered one by accident in Lübeck a couple of years ago. I just ordered a “Berliner Weiße”, thinking it would just be a wheat beer. Then I didn’t back out when the water asked “rot odor grun?”. And got what you say: a large bright green glass of beer with cordial and a straw. Rather nice. Refreshing on a warm evening on a terrace on the street.
My wife wept with laughter the whole way down the glass.
A distant variant down south is nicknamed a “Radler” - half weissen bier, and half coca-cola, supposedly nice on a summer day on the bicycle. Hm.
Interesting…
I am not completely clear on the concept of a weissen bier. I know that Franziskaner, Widmer Brothers, Blue Moon (I think its called?), and Sierra Nevada Wheat beer are all brewed from wheat instead of Barley. But are any of the three of the kind you would mix with cola?
-FrL-
Note of interest: Turns out in Germany a “Radler” is beer mixed with lemonade. However in Germany lemonade can be either lemon-lime soda or lemon-lime flavored soda water. (The difference? I dunno.)
-FrL-
My first night in Berlin I tried one. It came in a thick-glass oversized goblet, and tasted strange but drinkable. The syrup was raspberry. I really don’t know why they serve it; German beer tastes wonderful just by itself!
In Poland, you can get a “piwo z sokiem”, literally “beer with juice.” In Krakow, at least, it’s a typical Polish lager with black currant juice. Although it bears a slight stigma as a “girls drink,” I enjoyed them on many occasions even though I’m a man in my forties. They didn’t look at me any funnier than any other guy sitting at a table of English speakers, anyway.
Radler is a lot like Shandy, and in my experience geared towards young people or lawnmowing.
These would be better-known, here in the States, as “malt beverages” or “wine coolers.”
Yeah, you’re right, I knew that. The thing about Weissen (or Weizen) is that just because some clown calls his brew a “wheat beer” doesn’t mean a whole lot. In addition to using mostly wheat instead of barley, certain strains of yeast are used giving the beer a unique taste and refreshing bite. I would be esp. suspicious of any of the so-called domestic microbrews “wheat beers”. A radler would be tough without the requisite hefe weissen to begin with. As far as imports go, Weihenstephan and Erdinger seem to travel pretty well. Not quite like an unpasteurized bottled or on-tap example though. Beer is alive or supposed to be.
For a Radler you would definitely use the lemon-lime soda. Usually, lemon-lime flavored soda water would not be called “lemonade” but…umm…lemon-lime flavored soda water, probably. Radler is actually a pretty common drink, especially in the summer. Oh, and it’s made with “Helles” (which is kind of like lager, or actually lager, I’m not too sure about my beers), not with Weizenbier in any case.
Weizenbier with lemonade would be called a “Russ” (Russian, for whatever reason), and is also quite popular in the summer.
There is such a thing as Weizenbier with Coca-Cola, but that would usually be consumed in clubs, usually by people who are too young to know better, not in beer gardens or restaurants. That would be called a “Cola-Weizen”, or (terribly un-PC) “Neger”.
[nitpick]Wheat beers are not brewed with wheat instead of barley, but rather with a mixture of wheat and barley in the mash, usually anywhere from about 40-70% raw or malted wheat.[/nitpick]
For US homebrewers, there are a whole host of specialty strains of yeast out there. Wits, Weizens, Hefe-Weizens, and just plain “wheat beer.”
While it’s true that one may not be 100% style specific, some of them certainly can be, as all of the european (German/Belgian & area) conditions can be met pretty closely if one was determined to create a “true style” version here in the US.
That said, one of the great things about brewing is that unless you’re entering a “true style” competition, one can brew what they like. (and with some GREAT results!!! :D)
As for alive? I couldn’t agree more. I don’t care if it’s clear, I want it to taste GREAT! And the yeast is healthy anyway. 
I wasn’t referring to home brewing but domestic - and there’s something to be said about truth in advertising, I once picked up a six pack of micro-brew “Wheat Beer” and it was just awful, no matter what it was on the label. Hefes went through a fad phase, and they were just cashing in on that, not cool. In fact I was pretty pissed off, because I was buying it by the case for 8 bucks while stationed over there (which wasn’t very often, mostly deployed to the Balkans), and a sixer here in the states with those wimpy 12oz bottles was about the same price. Thankfully in recent years many of the larger breweries export their weissens widely here in the US. - Erdinger, Paulaner, Weihenstephaner.
I remember having Helles mit Limonade in Regensburg in the Late 80s, but it was called, IIRC, ‘Sinalco’. 