LCBO Food & Drink Summer 2021

‘Rad’ to the bone Stir it up at your next barbecue with a DIY radler, a satisfying, thirst- quenching combination of beer and fruit juice that goes so well with whatever you’ve got on the grill.

By Jesse Vallins | PHOTOGRAPHY BY rob fiocca

Big cuts of meat, grilled outdoors and enjoyed with drinks like beer and soda are a combination as old as time itself. Putting the beer and soda together to make your own radler is a fun way to build a pairing around what you’ve got on your barbe- cue. No need to limit yourself to the classic lemon or grapefruit: The sky is the limit as far as I’m concerned, and I like to add ingredients to complement the flavours already present in the beer. Check out these creative meat-and-radler combos, liter- ally made for each other, to lift your grilling game this summer!

IPA & pink GRAPEFRUIT RADLER (recipe on page 170) IPAs, like Bellwoods Roman Candle ( LCBO 16874, 473 mL, $5.00) or Amsterdam Boneshaker ( LCBO 351429, 473 mL, $3.55), are bursting with the flavours of grapefruit and citrus due to their judicious use of American hops. Adding pink grapefruit juice turns this up to 11, creating something tastier than the sum of its parts. A versatile pairing across the board, this radler is especially good with sweet-and-sour combi- nations, with a pleasing bitterness that cuts through the richness of fattier meats with ease.