I've had Mike's hard lemonade before, and during a trip to a NASCAR race in Michigan one year I learned that Mike's was a great beverage to wake up to when you were planning on a whole day of drinking heavily. Today, I'm not planning on drinking that much, so I want something that doesn't just go down easy after a night of drinking and before the next night of drinking. This time, I'm looking for taste. The fact that this is half Mike's and half lager means that it may suck quite a bit. Or, like an Arnold Palmer, it may turn out to be just right.
It pours a hazy pale yellow. It looks exactly like what you would expect if you poured a Mikes into the same bottle as a Bud or a Miller light. The head goes away quickly, and a decent ring around the top lets you know that there is beer in here - seriously. The aroma is a bit malty with heavy lemons. There may be a hint of grain, or it is possible my mind is playing tricks on me and letting me smell the things I think I should be able to smell.
First sip isn't all that bad. It reminds me of a drink I once had in college that was some fruity drink with a lot of alcohol that I sucked down because I was in college, and that's the thing you did when you were in college. The sweet lemonade taste hits right out of the gate, but something more sinister is sensed about halfway through. Toward the end, there is a slight hint of bread with the malt finishing things off. The carbonation is noticeable through the whole drink, and it gives the impression of a more potent beverage than the slight alcohol taste would have you believe.
A big gulp makes things a bit different. It still has the overwhelming taste of lemonade, but the malt fills up the middle pretty substantially. And the finish goes nuts. It's not quite a lemon taste and not quite a lager taste. It's what I'd imagine lemon rind dipped in raw bread batter would taste like. It's not entirely bad, but not something I'm going to hurry back to anytime soon.
1.75/5