Lughnasadh Summer Shandy Recipe (with nonalcoholic option)

Cheers to the summer harvest with this delightful chamomile, apple, and ginger shandy recipe for Lughnasadh (now with non alcoholic options, too).

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Celebrating Midsummer with a Shandy

The inspiration for this shandy drink recipe is the mid-summer celebration of Lughnasadh, an ancient Gaelic holiday marking the start of harvest season. Named for the Irish god of light, Lugh, the day inspires us to celebrate the vibrant energy of the season. It reminds us to pause, be present, to bask in the bounty of the summer—before its fleeting light wanes to autumn. (If you want to learn more about the day, you can check out my Lughnasadh drink blog here.)

What better way to celebrate the start of the grain harvest, than with a wheat beer, bourbon, and brandy concoction?

This shandy recipe is an ode of the season’s ingredients, vibrant moments, and abundance. Lemon, chamomile, and apple craft a calming, bright base while a chilled Belgian white beer tops the drink to craft a perfect summer sip.

Let’s get into the ingredients and why.

Ingredients

• Lemon – Of course, this is necessary for a shandy recipe. Remember: fresh is always best!
• Ginger – Ginger adds an invigorating bite, perfect for the vitality of summer. While the recipe only calls for a little bit, it really adds a necessary component to the drink. Don’t skip!
• Chamomile-Orange or Classic Simple Syrup – My chamomile simple syrup is easily whipped up in minutes and adds a vibrant, unforgettable floral edge to this recipe. Of course, you can use classic simple syrup in a pinch. But truly, if you have 5 minutes, chamomile tea, sugar, and cinnamon you can whip this up in minutes.
• Apple brandy – Apples are a fruit of abundance, and a go-to for any harvest season celebration
• Belgian white/wheat beer – Lughnasadh is a grain harvest, so beer makes a natural choice (hence the choice of a shandy for this recipe!). You can try other beers, but I found this one to be best.
• Bourbon (Optional) – a tad of bourbon adds some further nuance and depth to the recipe, but can easily be skipped.

This summer shandy just goes to show that when you select ingredients with an intention, you really can make a delicious, feel-good recipe.

Making a Non Alcoholic Shandy

To make a non alcoholic shandy option:

• Use nonalcoholic beer (Belgian white)*
• Increase the syrup to 1 ounce (or to taste)
• Substitute the apple brandy for apple juice
• Skip the bourbon addition

*In today’s market, non alcoholic options aren’t just becoming more and more accessible, but more elevated. Nonalcoholic beer has been around for a long time, but Blue Moon actually released a zero alcohol version a couple years ago that works perfect for a non alcoholic shandy recipe. You can try other nonalcoholic Belgian white or similar styles of beers, but Blue moon is what I personally tried.

If you don’t want to use non alcoholic beer, you can simply skip for a delicious apple, ginger, chamomile lemonade. You just might want to add some water to balance out the lemon.

If you’re looking how to navigate making creative, meaningful mocktails, check out my book Mystical Mocktails.

Lughnasadh Summer Shandy Recipe

For making it to the end – here is an old photo from when I first made this recipe back in 2020!