What a jape! What an absolute wheeze! When discount supermarket Aldi brought out obvious knock-offs of BrewDog's flagship beers Punk IPA and Elvis Juice, the Scottish brewer retaliated with ALD IPA, appropriating the German chain's company livery. Suspiciously soon afterwards, Aldi agreed to begin stocking ALD alongside their specially-commissioned BrewDog doppelgangers, Anti-Establishment IPA and Memphis Blvd. It seemed like a perfect opportunity for some blind-taste fun, to find out if Aldi really can go toe-to-toe with a brewery of BrewDog's stature.
Of course, the recipes of Anti-Establishment and ALD have nothing at all in common with each other, and the beers look very different: one a russet amber, the other purest spun gold. Head retention was uniformly poor but that could just be the state of my glassware. Aroma: the dark one was pithy and sweaty, and immediately set wheels spinning in my memory; the pale one was dank and piquant, suggesting fresh American hops. It has been suggested that the brewery behind the knock-offs is Aldi regular Williams Brothers, and that unpleasant funk from the darker one called to mind some of the poorer Aldi specials they've committed in the past. I thought it would be better to taste before calling it.
It couldn't have been clearer that one of these breweries knows how to handle hops the way I like while the other definitely doesn't. Amber Boy is chalkily dry and rough on the tongue but also tries to tack on a balancing malt sweetness. It's an unholy mix of celery, spinach, strawberries and toffee, liquidised and forced down your throat in a tube. Not a good time. The angel on the other shoulder is lager-clean and light-bodied, while also resinous and oily, tasting of fresh, crisp kale and crunchy red cabbage with a sprinkling of black pepper. The bitterness is properly balanced by lemon candy. Easy drinking but complex and interesting; a class act (not a million miles from Dead Pony) and just a higher level of quality next to the other ghastly chimera.
My guess, then, was that the dark one was Anti-Establishment, with a bonus punt for Williams Brothers being the brewery, while the pale one was ALD IPA, BrewDog doing what they're good at. My identification proved to be correct.
I needed to complete the set, of course, so also picked up Memphis Blvd. As Aldi's answer to Elvis Juice it's an IPA with grapefruit. Not that I'm a big fan of Elvis Juice or anything, but hey -- 6.5% ABV and for buttons. It's a lovely coppery red colour, but the fun pretty much ends there. There's awesomely epic amounts of grapefruit and epically awesome amounts of bittering hops and they do not get on. The result tastes like an equal mix of orange peel and vomit, with a nasty dry metallic rasp for bad measure. While I don't particularly like Elvis Juice I do particularly hate this.
The finisher is one which I picked up with the others but is thematically unrelated to them. I don't know if Deadly Brewing Lager is meant to be ripping off something specific, or even where it's brewed. It's a pedestrian 4% ABV, a middling clear golden, and my lightning finger on the camera shutter managed to capture a thin layer of head in the seconds before it faded away completely -- bad for a lager, cheapie or not. There's a decent body; a malty weight not unlike a much stronger Helles or even a Märzen. A honey sweetness accompanies this, plus a fun wintery spicing: sage and eucalyptus. My cynicism of three sentences ago melted before the sticky oat-cookie finish arrived. This has a lovely heft and a tasty complexity. If it's not German-brewed, it's from someone who has the German way nailed down well.
As a reluctant scholar of Aldi's big-brand clone beers I have noted before that they rarely have anything other than the most basic specifications in common with the beers they're trying to ape. While I didn't do a side-by-side with this latest pair I doubt anyone would have trouble differentiating them from Punk or Elvis Juice, and anyone who bought them as substitutes is in for disappointment. Deadly Brewing Lager, on the other hand, is easily overlooked and well worth throwing some change at.
I'm guessing DBL is meant to be a Pistonhead clone.
ReplyDeleteBrewdog of course open-sourced its recipes, so when I tried Anti-Establishment I did wonder if it was based on the real Punk recipe. It's not great but I liked it more than you did, I suspect!
I would say it was based on nothing other than the cheapest way to make an IPA.
DeleteIsn't the Deadly Brewing trying to ape Pistonhead?
ReplyDeleteSo my comments section seems to think. Who am I to disagree?
Delete"orange peel and vomit" love the line!
ReplyDeleteI calls it as I tastes it.
DeleteAdd a lime to the f
ReplyDeleteglass of memhpis and i find its drinkable...
I'll take your word for it.
DeleteThis seems to be the best blog post to inform you that Aldi stores in the U.S.A. have compiled 24 different bottled beers in a case and christened it "The Advent Beer Calendar".
ReplyDeleteEleven of the beers are from Ireland. Specifically, the O'Shea's line, and four Deadly Brwg.'s beers - 3 IPAs and an Amber Ale {How did it get in there?}.
I posted all the beers of the consist on the BeerAdvocate forum should you want to dig deeper.
The U.S.A. consist also had seven beers from Aldi's preferred contract brewer Oktopi Brwg. (D/b/a "State of Brewing") of Waunakee, WI. 53597
Its price was $49.99.
I wonder if they will pop-up should Aldi have an Advent case for Europe?
I don't think there's ever been much cross-pollination of Aldi's beer range between the US and Ireland. The O'Shea's range disappeared from here years ago and there's a different Carlow-brewed selection now -- reviewed here.
Delete40 years of drinking, selling and reviewing beers and I've got to say I haven't come across a more ludicrous review of the Memphis BLVD. It might be an average beer but it certainly doesn't deserve overtly flowery language more suited to wine bores. Give it a rest mate.
ReplyDeleteWhat's been your favourite review of Memphis BLVD so far? I'm 17 years writing what I like on my own blog and have no intention giving it a rest, but I'm always interested in other people's good reviews. Show me how it's done.
DeleteChaps, i really quite like it, yes it's dry and punchy a with grapefruit twang and a tongue sucking finish but beer is subjective, I'm a stout drinker generally but i like some fruit beers, Elvis juice being one of them but I'll happily buy this again.
Deletefrom a random ale drinker.
Love the Memphis Blvd, can't get enough!
ReplyDeleteBut as the ol' saying goes... errr... one man's pussy juice is another man's marmite.( I made that up!)
Odd. I thought they only sold it to grown-ups.
Delete