Sipping organic beers seemed like a dream come true. I got to be a beer drinker and a do-gooder at one sitting. The reality of the organic-beer scene turned out to be slightly more complicated.

It is true that organic beers are marginally "greener" than their nonorganic kin.

Lakefront Organic Extra Special Bitter

Milwaukee, Wis.$8.50 a six-pack

Disappointing. A copper-red beer that showed very little life, organic or otherwise.

[ Rob Kasper]