June 12, 2000 -- A while ago, the good folk at Anheuser-Busch sent along samples of their two new pseudo-beers: Doc Otis' Hard Lemon Malt Beverage and Tequiza Extra. I finally got around to sampling them last week.

I began with Doc Otis', a 5% alcohol "hard" lemonade. In its clear bottle, it looks like lemonade. In the glass, it smells like lemonade -- actually, more like the San Peligrino Limonata drink, which has an assertively tart, fresh citrus aroma. And its taste?

Yikes! Where did that fresh lemon go? From the moment this hits the tongue, it's sweet, sweet, sweet. Sugary up front, candied lemon in the body, with a subtext of alcohol, and cloying in the finish. The heavy carbonation and acidity help alleviate some of the sweetness, but to me, this is alcoholic soda pop. Which, I suppose, is really the point.

Medium gold in colour, Tequiza Extra has a pleasant and mild "charred wood" aroma with light herbal notes. The body does carry some definite tequila notes on a malty, off-dry flavour. (The A-B release states that "tequila taste and aroma are created by combining real imported Mexican tequila, produced in the country's Jalisco region, with other natural flavors to form a tequila flavor. The tequila flavor is then added to the lager beer, contributing to the product's alcohol content.") The finish sports a fair amount of tequila flavour on a softly alcoholic, warming base.

Actually, Tequiza Extra isn't bad. It is certainly much more palatable than the original Tequiza, and yes, it is also less sweet and more tequila-y. But good enough to sell me on the idea of tequila-flavoured beer? Not really. I thought it was a bad idea when Fischer came up with France's and the world's first tequila-flavoured beer, Desperados, and nothing A-B has done yet has changed my view.

To finish up my tasting, I shifted gears dramatically and opened my last bottle of Chimay Gold Label, the 4.8% alcohol ale the Trappist monks drink at the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont in southern Belgium. It is exclusively available at the Auberge de Poteaupre the small inn the monks own down the road from the abbey.

Coppery in colour, the Gold Label has an aroma that will be familiar to any aficionado of the other, more readily available Chimay ales: fresh, fruity, a bit spicy, a bit earthy. In flavour, however, the Gold sides steadfastly with the drier Chimay White against the richer, maltier Blue and Red. The start carries tangerine and other fruity notes, but quickly gives way to a more hoppy, slightly woody body with notes of nutshell, straw and spice. The finish is so dry that it feels almost as if it has evaporated on your tongue.

This is a beer I could get used to drinking. Pity that I have to cross an ocean and a country if I want to get more.

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