The good news is that my wife wants to get into brewing and is planning her first batch this weekend.
The bad news is that she wants to make something similar to Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, and I'm kind of at a loss for the best way to do it.
She is going to do just a basic American wheat beer as the base. I know the traditional shandy is beer and lemonade mixed together when it's poured. But she wants to be able to bottle it. So my questions are:
1. If she just adds the lemonade prior to bottling, am I correct that she'd need to brew a bigger beer to get the ABV she wants (e.g. brew an 8% beer to finish with a 4% shandy, if she uses a 50/50 ratio)?
2. I'm a little concerned about all the extra sugar in the lemonade from going that route. Worried about overcarbonation and bottle bombs. Anyone have any experience with going this route?
3. I've read about some people just adding packets of unsweetened lemonade Kool-Aid at bottling. That would be my preferred route just because of ease and not worrying about the carbonation issues. Has anyone ever tried that?
I'm really hoping that third route will work, but I'm definitely open to suggestion.
Thanks!