Grapefruit Beer: Hefeweizen and Shandy Brands Worth Trying

Grapefruit beer is really a shandy or radler by another name in most cases: a wheat beer base blended roughly 50/50 with grapefruit-flavored drink rather than a beer independently brewed with grapefruit as an ingredient. Schofferhofer, the German brand credited as the first hefeweizen grapefruit beer, and Leinenkugel’s Grapefruit Shandy, its best-known American counterpart, both follow that same blended template.

Schofferhofer Grapefruit Hefeweizen

Brewed by Binding-Brauerei AG in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Schofferhofer markets itself as the world’s first hefeweizen grapefruit beer: a true 50/50 blend of unfiltered Schofferhofer wheat beer and carbonated grapefruit-flavored drink made from natural ingredients. At just 2.5% ABV, it’s noticeably lighter than a standard beer, which is part of the appeal for readers looking for a lower-alcohol summer option. The flavor leans heavily grapefruit-forward rather than beer-forward, with a hazy orange color, dense foamy head and mild malt sweetness in the background.

Leinenkugel’s Grapefruit Shandy

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company has brewed in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin since 1867, making it one of the oldest continuously operating breweries in the US; it’s now a Molson Coors subsidiary. Grapefruit Shandy starts with the brewery’s honey-brewed weiss beer base (most of the honey ferments out before packaging) blended with natural white grapefruit flavor, at 4.2% ABV, 11 IBU, and available seasonally March through September. It’s a variant on Leinenkugel’s flagship Summer Shandy, which uses lemonade flavor instead; Grapefruit Shandy swaps that for white grapefruit, producing a more tart, slightly bitter citrus character while sharing the same ABV and honey-weiss base.

Where Grapefruit Shandies and Radlers Actually Come From

I always keep a grapefruit shandy in the fridge through the summer, it is one of the few styles my non-beer-drinking friends will actually reach for. Grapefruit beer belongs to a much older tradition of mixing beer with fruit or fruit soda. The German Radler (“cyclist”) is usually credited to innkeeper Franz Xaver Kugler, who mixed beer with lemon soda in 1922 at his inn outside Munich after running low on beer supply for a crowd of cyclists riding a new bike trail he’d built to his tavern. That story is widely repeated, though the beer-and-soft-drink combination itself is documented in German texts as far back as 1912. Britain’s equivalent, the shandy, is a shortening of “shandygaff,” first recorded in 1852-53; Charles Dickens himself called it “the perfect alliance between beer and pop.” The original shandygaff mixed beer with ginger beer rather than lemonade, and it’s this older British tradition, not the German Radler, that most grapefruit shandies on this list actually descend from stylistically. See our radler and shandy recipes guide if you want to build your own version at home instead of buying a pre-mixed one.

Serving and Pairing Grapefruit Beer

Grapefruit beer’s bitterness overlaps naturally with hop bitterness, which is why it works especially well with hefeweizen (where the fruit note plays off the banana-clove yeast character) rather than something already hop-forward like an IPA, where the bitterness can stack up and taste harsh. Serve it cold, around 40-45degF, in a tall pilsner or weizen glass to keep the carbonation lively; letting it warm mutes the citrus note faster than it does with a standard lager. It pairs well with anything you’d put grapefruit itself alongside: grilled fish, shrimp tacos or a simple green salad, rather than heavier, richer food that would fight the beer’s acidity.

FAQs

Is grapefruit beer the same as a shandy or radler?
Functionally yes in most commercial cases. Both Schofferhofer and Leinenkugel’s Grapefruit Shandy are wheat beer blended roughly 50/50 with grapefruit-flavored drink, the same basic template as a shandy or radler, just with grapefruit instead of lemonade or ginger.

Which grapefruit beer has more alcohol?
Leinenkugel’s Grapefruit Shandy, at 4.2% ABV, versus Schofferhofer Grapefruit Hefeweizen at 2.5% ABV.

Is Leinenkugel’s Grapefruit Shandy available year-round?
No, it’s a seasonal release, typically available March through September per the brewery’s own listing.