Unsweetened Homemade Shandy!

Just over forty 40 years ago, I drank some shandy in Paris and enjoyed it. Then, after that I never had it. That is until a few months ago, when someone gave me a bottled Israeli version. I pretty much spit it out. It was totally awful, just too sweet and no beer taste at all.

That is until the other night...

I had a partially full (ok, almost empty) bottle of this Emek Ha'ela Irish Red Ale sitting in the fridge, because my attempt to drink it a couple of weeks before had been sabotaged by its hyperactive bubbly foam/head. And then when I tried to finish it a week or so later, it was disappointing, so there was still some left in the bottle.

It cost too much to spill down the drain, and I haven't  recently made potted beef which probably would have been a good companion. So, I decided to try something much more radical, and possibly medicinal. I had it with freshly squeezed lemon juice and even left the lemon in the mug.

The lemon added a bit more life to it, and it didn't bother me at all that the beer was totally flat, no foam at all. I'm not a great fan of carbonation and sodas. And it certainly was not sweet. OK some of you beer mavins may be groaning in disgust, as if this is sacrilegious, but I liked it!

Beer: Emek Ha'Ela's Irish Red Ale

Here's the bottle of Emek Ha'Ela Irish Red Ale posing with our still very feisty 5777 Rosh Hashanah head.

Just that you know, I'm not the great beer mavin my friend and mentor Doug Greener of Israel Brews and Views is. But I do have my opinions...

On Friday before Shabbat since I had decided to treat myself to one of the beers I had picked up in the shuq, I figured I'd photograph it in advance, and since 5777 is still looking pretty fresh and perky, she/he joined.

I'm not sure why I davka chose the Emek Ha'Ela Irish Red Ale to open first, but I did, and after taking its picture, I put it in the fridge. In the end I didn't drink it with the Friday night meal, since my husband had chosen a wine I wanted to drink, so I drank it alone Shabbat afternoon.

Actually, I didn't drink much of it, and that wasn't because I didn't like it. It just created such a massive amount of foam/head or whatever you call it, that even though I poured it very carefully and slowly, barely a teaspoon of beer was in the glass while the bubbles spilled all over the table. This was very frustrating. I didn't have all afternoon for this beer-tasting experiment. My second attempt to pour wasted even more beer on the table, so I just gave up. The rest is sitting in the refrigerator. I'll return to it eventually with the hope that the carbonation will self-destruct.

Besides that, from the little I managed to taste, the color and flavor were fine. I do like red ales better than the lighter beers.

But the bottom line is that because of the over-carbonization, I wouldn't recommend it, unless you keep it open for some time before pouring... I presume that a real beer mavin wouldn't say such a thing...