Chocolate milk, Sick. It's a famous recovery drink. Usually low-fat, if you can find it. The other famous one is 5T sugar dissolved in a pint of low-fat milk. That has about the same nutrional breakdown as popular recovery drink powders. Only problem is lactose intolerance, which many people have, including me. So we do the powders.
Fruit juice isn't the same. Not enough protein in beer, and besides, beer messes with metabolism. Although I always have a beer after my real recovery drink after a hard ride. It seems to stop the pain in my legs better than anything else. Then I'll munch on a bagel for an hour, and then maybe a PB&J and then it'll be dinner time.