BEER, AMONG its many virtues, plays well with others. Oh, it is mighty fine on its own; it is good cold or (so it is said by the English) warm, dark or light, from bottles or cans or on tap. But it's also a good mixer for an array of summer drinks that refresh you without leaving you totally blitzed. These drinks are much more common in Europe, where beer has a centuries-old legacy not as – or at least not just as – a party in a keg but as a nutrient. (For an excellent account of beer as food, check out Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants, by Wolfgang Schivelbusch.) But if bartenders here don't recognize the (mostly German) names, most of them will adulterate your beer to your specifications. Luckily, these blends are among the simplest formulas in the lore of mixology.

The shandy is probably the most familiar of these drinks to Americans. Shandy is the Irish word for beer cut with citrus soda (Sprite or 7-Up); the ratio can vary from three parts of beer and one of soda, to 50-50. It all depends on what degree of pleasant haziness you're after. Irish bars are, of course, the best places to ask for them by name.

In Bavaria, the shandy is known as the Radlermass, or simply the Radler, the name referring to riders of bicycles who wish to refresh themselves at beer gardens without becoming so trashed as to be unable to pedal home. "Radler" also refers to beer with lemonade, while a "Russen" is wheat beer (slightly more sour than the barley kind) with lemonade. You can also get wheat beer mixed with Coke.

Wheat beer, or Weisse, also figures in the famous beer drink of Berlin, the Schuss. This is a famously sour local wheat brew infused with a sweetening syrup, either of raspberry (red) or woodruff (green). Neither the Berliner wheat beer nor the syrups are widely available in this country, but if you've been to Berlin, you're probably sentimental (or, yes, even syrupy) about your Schuss memories, so with the help of your bartender you might be able to improvise – perhaps with a domestic wheat beer infused with one of the more colorful Torani syrups.

Paul Reidinger