History

National Bohemian, brewed in Baltimore since 1885 under the National Brewing Company, became the city's identity beer through the 20th century, with the one-eyed Mr. Boh mascot painted on Brewer's Hill warehouses. Pabst now brews Natty Boh in North Carolina, but Baltimore drinks the beer with the same fierce loyalty. The customer practice of mixing Natty Boh half-and-half with lemonade is the canonical Maryland shandy bar order, since formalised as a sister product. Max's Taphouse, Of Love and Regret and Chaps Pit Beef all pour Natty Boh on draft.

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Common allergens: Gluten

Make it at home

Yield 2Hands-on 10 minTotal 10 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 2 cans (12 oz / 355ml) cold National Bohemian, Pabst Blue Ribbon or any clean American lager
  • For the lemonade: 4 lemons juiced (around 240ml), 100g caster sugar, 250ml cold water
  • Ice cubes
  • Lemon slices for garnish
  • Old Bay on the rim (optional)

Method

  1. Make the lemonade: combine the lemon juice, sugar and water in a jug. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Refrigerate cold.
  2. If using the Old Bay rim: pour a tablespoon of Old Bay onto a plate. Run a lemon slice around the rim of two pint glasses and dip the rim in the Old Bay.
  3. Fill the glasses with ice.
  4. Pour the cold lager to fill each glass halfway.
  5. Top up with the cold lemonade.
  6. Stir gently. Garnish with a lemon slice.
  7. Serve immediately; the shandy goes flat quickly.
  8. For the canonical Baltimore order, drink alongside steamed blue crabs heavily dusted in Old Bay.

Tip from the editors. Natty Boh is hard to find outside the mid-Atlantic; PBR is the closest national substitute. Pair the shandy with crab boil for the full experience.

Where to eat natty boh and the maryland shandy

Natty Boh and the Maryland shandy in Baltimore

Max's Taphouse ★ 4.0

$$ New AmericanFells PointUntil Late, with bar food

Max's Taphouse on Fells Point's Broadway pours from more than a hundred taps late into the night, with a kitchen of pub grub to soak up the beer.

TryBeer and pub grub

TipIt stays open late on Broadway; the kitchen keeps going alongside the deep tap list.

Directions

Chaps Pit Beef ★ 4.3

$ New AmericanGreektown

Chaps Pit Beef on Pulaski Highway delivers a hefty, cheap pit beef sandwich, charcoal-grilled rare top round on a kaiser with tiger sauce and onion.

TryPit beef sandwich

TipA pit beef sandwich is a meal on its own; order it rare with tiger sauce.

Directions

Of Love and Regret ★ 4.1

$$ GastropubCanton

Of Love and Regret in Brewers Hill is a gastropub from the Stillwater beer team, pairing a tight craft tap list with seasonal plates and Belgian.

OrderWhatever Stillwater or rare Belgian is on draft, with the seasonal plates.

TipThe tap list rotates fast and leans Belgian and sour; ask the bar what just landed.

Directions

Mama's on the Half Shell ★ 4.2

$$$ SeafoodCanton

Mama's on the Half Shell on Canton Square is a neighbourhood crab-and-oyster house, working steamed crabs, oysters and a crab cake across two busy floors.

OrderA dozen steamed crabs in season, or the crab cake the rest of the year.

TipWeekend afternoons overflow with locals; ask for a seat upstairs or out on the patio.

Directions

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