Shack a can

What more appropriate drink for a summer midweek than shandy? The Shandy Shack would like us to believe there is no better proposition. "Shandy's a British treasure that gives everyone pleasure" says the unlikely copy on the cans I bought in a northside Dublin supermarket, adding that it was "ripe for a refresh, so we [who?] quit our jobs, built a Shack and started the revival". Err, OK.

I began with Elderflower Lager, described as a pilsner with added elderflower cordial, and is 2.5% ABV. The visuals are excellent: it's a rich golden colour with pristine clarity. If the intention is to make it look like a proper lager then it works. I see oats on the ingredients, which I'm guessing is a texture thing, because it doesn't contribute any haze, nor does much for head retention. So it's not thin, but it goes a little too far the other way, because of course it's sweet, and so it feels syrupy, and that has a knock-on detrimental effect on its ability to refresh. Half way through I added ice, which helped a little. It still mostly tasted of sugar, and not of elderflower. I guess the cordial is already at one remove, and adding the beer makes it even less elderflowery. It's not unpleasant, but I think it fails at its primary function of being light and thirst-quenching. This is something of a theme with me and pre-made shandies, but they should have added more beer.

OK. Reset and go again. There are a number of shandies in the Shandy Shack range, but the only other one I found was Raspberry Lager. It's still 2.5% ABV, and again they've done a superb job with the appearance. I was expecting lurid pink, but instead it's a dead classy russet shade. It does smell of raspberry -- that's a difficult fruit to hide -- but there's a degree of artificiality about it, like raspberryade or sherbet candy. And it is, if anything, even more syrupy than the elderflower one. I made sure to serve it properly fridge-cold and it still gummed up my palate immediately, the fizz struggling to push through the mire and failing to do any refreshment or palate cleansing. Even more than with the aroma, the flavour tastes of fruit-flavoured candy rather than anything real: there's none of the tartness or juice burst of any actual summer berry. This one would need a lot more beer to make it worthwhile.

I realised at the end that I hadn't even been judging these as beers, so distant are they from the concept as commonly understood. Any of the continental citrus radlers will provide a better experience than you get from this pair. They're obviously trying hard, and seeking to look classy, on both the inside and outside of the cans. But their syrupy stickiness is a deal-breaker. Just have, like, a normal beer instead?