Snake-bite and its variants (diesel should clearly be regarded as a variant of snake-bite, a.k.a. snake-bite and black) are an entirely different kettle of fish, if only for the simple reason that they are usually ''more'' intoxicating than beer (and often drunk specifically for the purpose of hastening intoxication), where one of the reasons for shandy is precisely that it is less so (hence more suitable for quenching thirst).
Shandy mixes beer with a (usually sweet and fizzy) low-alcohol (or alcohol-free) drink; in the UK, cider is typically at least as strong as beer (and often stronger); nor is it generally sweet.
Got to agree with you there, Beer (usually Lager) and Cider mixed is defiantly called a Snake Bite. When I was younger and went out drinking regularly there were a lot of establishments that refused to serve Snake Bite because of its supposed magic property of getting you falling down drunk. This thou, had more to do with the fact that only younger less experienced drinkers would order them. When the two drinks are mixed together the resulting liquid has a nasty propensity to go all cloudy and gloopy, not too sure why, maybe some chemical used in their brewing react together. Special Brew and Merrydowns can be used to mix the drink the resulting Snake Bite is much more potent and really lives up to it's name, after drinking it you really feel like you have been poisoned, and if you can't get to Loma Linda within an hour or two you are dead.
[[User:Yakacm|Yakacm]] ([[User talk:Yakacm|talk]]) 12:27, 14 May 2011 (UTC)
Likewise, the addition of alcopops to beer, while possibly making the taste more palatable to teenagers, generally serves to produce a more intoxicating drink, not a better thirst-quencher.
