The month of May has been pretty lousy so far. I have been quarantined at home for ten weeks now, and the first half of May brought us cold and gloomy weather and the Murder Hornets, both of which made me retreat even further into the basement and never want to leave the house again.
Faithful readers may recall that a few weeks back was my annual changing of the beer style, putting away the dark and malty beers of winter for the pale and refreshing beers of summer.
In years past, these summer beers were enjoyed with friends on a sun-drenched patio, but my only drinking companions these days are present via Zoom video chats, which is a welcome respite from the ongoing isolation.
My weekly grocery + beer delivery from Spud.ca arrived this morning, and while they had sold out of my beloved Fahr Hefeweizen, I did score a six-pack of the new Fahr Radler, the perfect summer beer!
For those not familiar, Radler is the German term for a beer mixed 50/50 with soda or fruit juices, most commonly lemonade or grapefruit.
The term was first coined by a Bavarian innkeeper in 1922, who had craftily sponsored the construction of a bicycling trail through the forest to his pub, located 12 miles outside of Munich.
Business boomed almost immediately, with thousands of cyclists descending on his pub each weekend, parched after their long ride, and very nearly drank the pub dry.
Fearing the loss of revenue from running entirely out of beer, the clever innkeeper realized he had thousands of bottles of clear lemon soda in his storerooms, which were virtually unsellable to the beer-loving Bavarians.
Thinking quickly, he mixed the lemonade with beer in a 50/50 ratio, and proudly announced it as a special cyclist-friendly beer that would let them drink to their heart’s content, but not fall off their bicycles on the way home.
The beer was naturally named Radler, after the German word for cyclist, and a new style of beer was born. Popularity grew rapidly, and every German drinking establishment soon had their own version of a Radler, usually made up onsite by the bartenders as they were pouring pitchers.
Today, the Radler market is dominated by an Austrian megabrewery called Stiegl, and the tallboy cans of Stiegl Radler have been a common sight on the patios of Alberta for the last several years.
Made from half Stiegl Goldbräu and half grapefruit juice, it weighs in at a mere 2.5% ABV, and the tart citrus finish makes it particularly thirst-quenching on a hot day, especially if you happened to ride your bicycle to the pub.
As you might expect, once a new beer craze hits the market, imitators quickly jump on the bandwagon, offering their own spin on the Radler style.
The first Canadian megabrewer to produce their own Radler was Rickards (owned by Molson), in the form of their Rickards Radler, which is remarkably similar to Stiegl Radler, down to the same tallboy can and blend of grapefruit juice.
As an unrepentant beer snob, I eschew most of the output of the megabreweries, and my Radler habits will be no exception.
Fortunately, there are several crafty Alberta brewers producing Radlers, including my personal favourite from Brauerie Fahr in Turner Valley, the most authentic German brewery this side of Munich!
This small brewery in Turner Valley is named for its owner, who grew up in a small German village, and moved to Alberta a dozen years ago to complete a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Calgary.
While his schooling was originally intended to focus on industrial processing, the beer lovers of Alberta rejoiced when he decided to open a craft brewery in 2015, putting those engineering skills to good use in designing and constructing a brewery in Turner Valley, about an hour southwest of Chestermere.
All the beers are exceptionally well made German styles, with the Radler being no exception. I like to drink the Radler on its own, or throw caution to the wind and mix it with the Fahr Hefeweizen.
While you may not be drinking Radlers on a bicycle-driven brewery tour this month, you can have it delivered right to your door until we are finally free of this pandemic.
