Radler and Hefeweizen

Let me first say that I'm not a beer person. But there're a few that I adore...

When my sister & I visited Munich, Germany in August 2007, a good friend introduced us to radler, a mix of a pilsner-style beer with lemon-lime soda. I was in love! During the short stay we had in Munich, I made sure that I had at least one 0.5L of radler per day.

After returning to the US, I still thirst for the drink and wanted to introduce my husband to it. So we mixed our own! We purchase lemon soda, Bavarian hefeweizen (like Franziskaner Hefe Weissbier), and mixed the two in 50/50 proportions. It worked! Yum...

We discovered another delicious beer on our recent trip to beautiful Central Coast around San Luis Obispo, CA - the Widmer hefeweizen on tap served at the Cracked Crab. According to an article from SF Gate in June 2007, it appears that Widmer Hefewiezen has some ties to its Germany relatives as well. No wonder we liked it!

"When we first started," says Widmer, "we were making a filtered wheat beer, a kristallweizen, and sometimes in Germany, they would put a lemon on the kristallweizen. We had bartenders do the same thing with our beer. When we switched to an unfiltered version two years later, the lemon stuck."

Most purists toss the lemon aside, but Widmer likes to slide his lemon wedge around the rim to add extra zing. But as he says, "It's all a matter of personal taste.