Radler, shandy and panaché are three names for beer diluted with a soft drink, used in Germany, Britain and France, and only a version built on alcohol-free beer is itself alcohol-free. A radler pairs beer with lemonade or sparkling citrus juice, a shandy pairs it with lemon soda, and a panaché pairs it with lemonade, usually in equal parts.
The alcohol content follows the beer in the glass and not the name on the menu. A Boursorama report of 28 September 2026 names non-alcoholic beer and panaché as the main drivers of dealcoholised drink sales during the heatwave summer in France. This page sets the definitions, the dilution arithmetic, the thresholds and the label rules side by side.
What is the difference between a radler, a shandy and a panaché?
A radler is beer mixed with lemonade or sparkling citrus juice, a shandy is beer mixed with lemon soda, and a panaché is beer mixed with lemonade, so the three differ by language and by soft drink more than by method. Radler is German for cyclist, shandy is recorded in English from 1888, and panaché is French for mixed.
The Drinks Business described the radler on 21 July 2025 as a lager diluted with a sparkling citrus juice, while Merriam-Webster defines the shandy as beer mixed with a nonalcoholic drink, especially lemon soda. French brewers describe the panaché as beer and lemonade in equal parts, or slightly more beer than lemonade. Spain has a fourth member of the family, the clara, which its beer standard defines in law.
| Name | Home market | Strength reported (% vol, source) |
|---|---|---|
| Radler | Germany | 2.0 to 3.2 (OCU); 2.0 to 2.5 on German bottles (Meininger's, 2024) |
| Shandy | United Kingdom | Below 1.0 (OCU) |
| Panaché | France | 1 to 3 (Aperitissimo, 2026); under 1.0 on one Alsace recipe (Licorne) |
| Clara | Spain | No figure in the legal definition (Royal Decree 678/2016) |
The strengths in the table do not agree because the sources describe different recipes and different base beers. The only fixed point is the arithmetic of dilution, treated in the next section, which links the bottle label to the beer used.
How much alcohol does a beer mix hold, and why do the figures differ?
Mixing beer with an alcohol-free soft drink in equal parts halves the alcohol: a 5.0 percent lager gives a 2.5 percent mix, and a 0.0 percent beer stays at 0.0 percent. These values are calculated here on the assumption that the soft drink holds no alcohol, and they match the 2.0 to 2.5 percent printed on German radler labels.
| Base beer (% vol) | Beer share of the mix (%) | Resulting strength (% vol, calculated) |
|---|---|---|
| 5.0 | 60 | 3.0 |
| 5.0 | 50 | 2.5 |
| 5.0 | 40 | 2.0 |
| 0.5 | 50 | 0.25 |
| 0.0 | 50 | 0.0 |
A mix made from a standard lager is therefore never alcohol-free, whatever it is called, which is why the label counts for more than the name. An alcohol-free radler starts from an alcohol-free beer. Einbecker, a German brewery, described its Radler 0.0 as its flagship product in April 2024, and the marketing chief quoted by Meininger's called alcohol-free the sales driver of the range.
In a beer mix the strength of the finished drink is set by the beer share and the strength of the base beer.
Where do the radler, the shandy and the panaché come from?
The radler is documented in Munich well before the legend that credits it to innkeeper Franz Xaver Kugler in 1922. Lena Christ's 1912 novel mentions a Radler-Maß served around 1900 at the Floriansmühle tavern, and the Munich city archivist Richard Bauer places its first appearance among the cycling clubs of the late 19th century.
Kugler served the mix at his Kugler Alm on the edge of Munich from 1922 and made it popular, which explains why he is still named as its inventor. The English word shandy is shorter and later in the record, with a first known use in 1888 in Merriam-Webster. French brewers' accounts, such as that of Brasserie Licorne, repeat the same Kugler story, so the sources consulted document no separate French origin for the panaché.
How are alcohol-free radlers counted in beer statistics?
German official statistics count alcohol-free beer mixed drinks inside alcohol-free beer, so the 6.5 percent rise in alcohol-free beer production in 2025, to about 616 million litres (6.16 million hectolitres), includes alcohol-free radlers. Alcoholic beer mixes such as radler are reported separately, at about 343 million litres in 2025, down 5.7 percent.
The Destatis release of 7 July 2026 covers establishments of companies with 20 or more employees. The two series moved in opposite directions in the same year, though the release does not break out alcohol-free mixes, so the weight of alcohol-free radlers inside the 616 million litres stays unknown. The Deutscher Brauer-Bund had reported a 6.5 percent fall in beer-mix sales for 2023 against 2022, with mixes still holding about 9 percent of the German beer market.
The French report of 28 September 2026 quotes a rise of six points for non-alcoholic beer and panaché without stating the unit, the period or the data provider, so that figure is not reproduced here. Only the direction is retained: both drinks gained in a hot summer.
What counts as alcohol-free for a beer mix in Europe?
No single European threshold exists. France reserves the name bière sans alcool for beer at 1.2 percent alcohol by volume or less (decree of 15 November 2016), Spain defines cerveza sin alcohol as below 1 percent, and German consumer testers cite a ceiling of 0.5 percent for alcohol-free drinks. The French government itself stated in 2020 that the EU has no definition.
| Country | Rule or source | Threshold for alcohol-free (% vol) |
|---|---|---|
| France | Decree 2016-1531, name bière sans alcool | 1.2 or less |
| Spain | Royal Decree 678/2016, article 3.2.f | Below 1.0 |
| Germany | Ceiling cited by Stiftung Warentest | 0.5 or less |
| Belgium | Definition used in the Belgian Brewers' 2025 report | Below 0.5 |
A drink at 0.8 percent would meet the French and Spanish thresholds for a beer sold without alcohol and exceed the German and Belgian ones, a comparison calculated from the table. The Spanish decree also defines the clara as a mix of any beer with gaseosa, an aromatised soft drink or a citrus fruit-juice drink, and neither radler nor shandy has an entry of its own in that text. The labels explainer covers the no, low and mid-strength bands in more depth.
What do alcohol-free versions contain and how are they made?
An alcohol-free radler combines an alcohol-free beer with a citrus soft drink, so most of the sugar and energy comes from the soft-drink side. A Spanish consumer organisation lists 0.0 percent lemon beers at up to 4 percent fruit juice and about 89 kilocalories per can.
The beer base is produced either by brewing to a very low alcohol level or by removing alcohol from finished beer, a process covered on the page about dealcoholisation. A home version follows the same logic, with an alcohol-free beer and a sugar-free lemonade in equal parts. The European picture of the underlying category appears in the 2026 market share figures.
Is a radler alcohol-free?
Not by default. A classic radler is made from regular beer and holds roughly 2 to 3 percent alcohol by volume, about half of a full-strength beer. Only a version labelled alcohol-free or 0.0, built on an alcohol-free beer, contains no meaningful alcohol.
What is the difference between a shandy and a radler?
The recipe is nearly the same. A shandy pairs beer with lemon soda or lemonade and the name is British, while a radler pairs beer with lemonade or sparkling citrus juice and the name is German. The practical difference is the base beer and the label, not the method.
Is panaché sans alcool really alcohol-free?
In France the name bière sans alcool allows up to 1.2 percent alcohol by volume, so a drink sold as sans alcool can contain traces. Under the 0.5 percent ceiling cited in Germany, the same drink could fail. The label states the exact figure.
How much alcohol is in an alcohol-free radler?
Between 0.0 and the legal ceiling of the country where it is sold. A 0.0 label means no meaningful alcohol, while a drink built on a beer of 0.5 percent and mixed half and half would calculate to 0.25 percent.
Sources
- Boursorama, 28 September 2026, La bière sans alcool cartonne en France et l'été caniculaire n'a fait que renforcer cette tendance: non-alcoholic beer and panaché named as the main drivers of dealcoholised drink sales; the six-point figure in the summary has no stated unit, period or provider. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- The Drinks Business, 21 July 2025, The radler and shandy trend is ready for lift-off: radler defined as a lager diluted with sparkling citrus juice, name from the German word for cyclist. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- Merriam-Webster, entry shandy: definition and first known use in 1888. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- Genuss Bayern (Bavarian state portal), entry Radler: Lena Christ 1912 novel, Floriansmühle around 1900, Richard Bauer, Kugler from 1922. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- Destatis, Zahl der Woche Nr. 28, 7 July 2026: alcohol-free beer production 2025 of about 616 million litres, up 6.5 percent, including alcohol-free beer mixed drinks; alcoholic beer mixes about 343 million litres, down 5.7 percent. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- Meininger's Brauwelt, 30 April 2024, Biermischgetränke mit Potenzial: German beer-mix sales down 6.5 percent in 2023, share of about 9 percent, Einbecker Radler 0.0 as flagship product, radlers at 2 and 2.5 percent. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- Brasserie Licorne, Panaché, boisson légère et estivale: panaché as beer and lemonade, equal parts, a recipe under 1 percent alcohol. Aperitissimo, 6 February 2026: 1 to 3 percent alcohol. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- Assemblée nationale, written question answered in 2020 on decree 2016-1531 of 15 November 2016: 1.2 percent threshold for bière sans alcool, no EU definition. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- BOE, Real Decreto 678/2016 of 16 December 2016, article 3: clara, cerveza sin alcohol (below 1 percent), cerveza de bajo contenido en alcohol (1 to 3 percent). Consulted 14 October 2026.
- OCU (Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios), Cómo elegir cervezas con limón: radler 2 to 3.2 percent, shandy below 1 percent, 0.0 lemon beers up to 4 percent juice and about 89 kcal per can. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- Stiftung Warentest (test.de), alcohol-free beer article of 24 July 2013, updated 1 October 2024: ceiling of 0.5 percent for alcohol-free drinks in Germany. Consulted 14 October 2026.
- Calculated figures (strength of the mixes in the second table, 6.16 million hectolitres conversion, comparison of thresholds at 0.8 percent) are derived on this page and are not published statistics.
Radler, shandy and panaché name one family of drinks, and the alcohol-free version differs from the classic one by its base beer, not by its recipe. The 2025 German production figures and the French summer report both point to growth on the alcohol-free side while alcoholic beer mixes shrink.
zeroproof.one follows these categories with their thresholds attached. The Journal holds the reference pages on labels, national markets and beer styles.