In what sounds like fertile ground for an upcoming ”Homer Goes To Santiago” travel episode, The Wall Street Journal reports that Fox has finally gotten around to making an official Duff Beer…that will only be available in Chile. The company has been fighting against unlicensed versions of Springfield’s favorite swill for years now, including a case in Chile that resulted in tens of thousands of bootleg beers being seized by the authorities. (Although versions have popped up all over the world, unauthorized Duff is apparently especially popular in Central and South America, where The Simpsons is broadcast in several localized Spanish-language incarnations.)
Now, presumably after downing several cases of contraband, Fox has decided to just relax and go with the whole thing. According to The Wall Street Journal, the real-life Duff will replicate exactly the bottle and packaging of the fictional brew, and is based on a recipe by British brewmaster Paul Farnsworth. Jeffrey Godsick, president of Fox’s consumer products division, describes the beer as “a premium lager” with “a very good balance of flavor and refreshment to it. It’s fairly deep golden in color. It’s got a hint of fruit to it. It’s got a caramel aromatic to it.” (Not to mention a hint of Hitler’s head.)
Fox tried to license an official Duff beer once before, in Australia in 1996. But that product never made it to supermarket shelves thanks to children’s advocacy groups, who argued that a beer associated with a cartoon encouraged underage drinking. That doesn’t seem to be a concern this time, probably because children don’t watch The Simpsons anymore. At the moment, there are no plans to sell Duff in the U.S. outside of Springfield’s equivalent of Vatican City, a.k.a. the Simpsons areas at Universal Studios.