Beyond the middle aisle

It's a discount grocery disaster that Lidl appears to have killed off the excellent Rye-River-brewed brown ale, just as I was getting into the habit of buying it. Lidl still remains best of breed for its regular-production beer range, but arch rival Aldi has the edge when it comes to service to tickers: they keep the short-run beers turning over. Today I'm catching up with three recent manifestations.

Earlier this year I reviewed Cosmic Hops, the newly-arrived pale ale, oddly styled after Beavertown's branding, even though that brewery has very little presence in Ireland beyond the increasingly ubiquitous Neck Oil in pubs. Now there's a second one, called Galactic Haze: still 3.8% ABV though the price has rocketed (lol) from 99c to €1.29. There is still no indication as to where it's brewed but I retain my hunch that it's one of Aldi's contract breweries in the UK, and it may even be sold there under a different name. It just about qualifies as hazy, being the pale and bright yellow of a witbier. There's a fresh lemon scent, though with an oilier depth behind it as well. Intriguing. It's nicely creamy at the front of the palate, but the low gravity is quickly betrayed as it runs to a watery finish within seconds. That means it doesn't carry much flavour, but what's there is very fit for purpose: a simple and clean lemon spritz; unchallenging but tasty and refreshing. It's a more accomplished beer than its predecessor, so if you didn't care for that one, give it a go anyway. And if you need a low-cost crowd-pleasing fridge-filler, it excels at that.

A lack of stated provenance is also an issue with the next two. Aldi is usually better than this. All the labels tell us is that they're from Ireland, somewhere. You know the usual suspects.

Asahi is another odd choice of target for pastiche, but from the silver, black and red branding on Zuki, I guess that's what they're going for. No ingredients list is provided, but I'm guessing it does have rice in it, though that doesn't seem to have affected its heft: 5% ABV, a substantial mouthfeel, and a body that's golden, not yellow. The vibes are very much more German than Japanese, with a strongly grassy aroma and an even more intense weedpatch noble hop flavour. Had I been looking for bland crispness of the Asahi sort, I would be disappointed. Instead, I got a more substantial pilsner experience: hop forward but set on a solidly bready malt base, and with a hint of fruit ester as it warms. Like many an Aldi own-brand lager, it's perfectly passable as long as you didn't expect it to correspond to its branding.

I don't know if any particular beer was in mind for Lotus, 4.5% ABV and badged as an Indian [sic] pale lager by someone who wasn't paying sufficient attention to the nomenclature of beer. There's no hop explosion in the aroma, just a broad fruit candy scent, to inform you that hops were involved. The flavour is very bland and, coupled with a much lighter texture, this might have been a better candidate for the Japanese branding. The hops here are tokenistic: a dusting of probably Cascade that's light enough to be mistaken for Fuggles. In fact, a carbonated English bitter or golden ale is probably a better fit as a style than IPL. In the absence of traditional lager hops, the lager side of the proposition is missing, the whole thing being a little bland, but without being cleansing and crisp. It's hard to be annoyed by a beer that's so simply constructed and sold cheaply; it doesn't have the necessary hop buzz of an India pale anything, however, so I can't really recommend it as anything other than A Cheap Beer. I had hoped for better.

OK, so while Aldi may be doing a good job of keeping the beers coming, the quality end of the offer could do with more attention.