Radler

Germany's beloved cyclist's drink combining crisp lager with sparkling lemonade, a refreshing low-alcohol thirst quencher perfect for hot summer days.

The Radler was invented by Franz Xaver Kugler, an innkeeper in the town of Deisenhofen, approximately twelve miles south of Munich, in June 1922. Kugler had built a bicycle trail connecting Munich to his establishment, the Kugleralm, to capitalize on the postwar cycling craze that had swept Germany. On a single Saturday that June, legend records that 13,000 thirsty cyclists arrived at his door at once. Faced with a beer supply that could not meet demand and a cellar stocked with lemon soda that nobody had been buying, Kugler made the pragmatic decision to mix the two at a 50/50 ratio. He named the drink Radlermass — radler means cyclist in German and mass is the old Bavarian word for a liter measure. Kugler reportedly told his customers he had invented the drink especially for them so that their reduced-alcohol refreshment would allow them to safely pedal home to Munich. The drink proved immediately and genuinely popular, and beer gardens across Munich adopted it within the season. German pure food laws actually prohibited the commercial bottling of premixed beer drinks until 1993, meaning that for seven decades the Radler could only be mixed to order at the bar. When premixed versions became legal, they spread quickly across Germany, Austria, and Central Europe. Today Radler is available in cans at grocery stores across Germany and has inspired regional variations including grapefruit versions and the Austrian Almdudler Radler.