ALDI beer knockoffs

I like Aldi.

 

So for a slight derailing...I was interested in this so I did a little digging on old fire insurance maps, which I could access for that area from the late 1880s through 1900, then 1920, 1949, and 1957. Turns out that 405 1st Street address is accurate: that was depicted as Eureka Brewery dating back to at least 1886, and was there on site through the 1900 map. The Brewery was gone by the 1920 map, which was the next available. I'd include photos of the maps, but there's no way to upload them.

The second address on Broadway - best I could locate it anyway - was historically a lumberyard through the late 1950s, with a Slaughterhouse behind. Didn't see any indication of a brewery, but there's a big gap in years.

I love researching this historic stuff. The old Sanborn fire insurance maps can be a trove of information if you have access to them.

 

LOL I do too, didn't used to when you couldn't use a credit card...

this thread makes me want to go buy this knock off beer and do some head-to-head taste tests.

 

Happened to stop by two different local Aldi's today shopping for something else but wanted to see if they had this new Key Lime Sour which was (according to the press release) supposed to hit shelves over a week ago. Neither store had it. Has anyone seen it at their Aldi yet?

 

Yeah I have gone to 2 different ones and it is at both, haven't grabbed it, might get it and let my daughter try it as that is in her wheel house

 

It's really happening:
https://twitter.com/BrewDogJames/status/1299035399541710848

"James Watt
@BrewDogJames

ICYMI:
1) @AldiUK made a fake @Brewdog PUNK IPA
2) BrewDog joked we would make a fake ALDI beer
3) People loved it
4) ALDI got in touch to list the fake ALDI beer
5) BrewDog & ALDI agreed for every case sold they would each plant one extra tree in the BrewDog Forest"

 

I love it when shit goes sideways in a good way

 

I went looking for the deutsche kuche brand at my Aldi, but no luck. Maybe it's a regional thing. But interestingly I discovered that Aldi may also be trying to spoof Costco because one of the brands of brats that my store does carry was called 'Kirkway' which I didn't buy. I picked up the beer brats that don't have an obvious brand name on the label, so I'm assuming mine are an Aldi brand.

 

Are those brats in a flat but curved, yellow, styrofoam tray? Pretty sure they're Johnsonville labeled for Aldi.

I think the Deutsche Kuche brats are in the fresh case near the coldcuts -- if you didn't look there.

 

Still haven't found the Key Lime Sour at any of the three southern California Aldis that I've visited. Anybody in that area happen to come across any?

 

Yep, yellow styrofoam tray. I'm okay with Johnsonville as the vendor. I like their brats.

The ones that I bought were in the meat case. The other ones with the Kirkway label that I mentioned in my post were in the case with the cheeses, cold cuts, etc. Some breakfast sausages were there too. Each store must be a bit different.

 

I'm only on page 4 of this thread, but it's after 29:00 hours here, and I need to logoff and go to sleep. I apologize if I repeat something in the later pages.
But I do buy beers at Aldi. A 6-pack of Warnesgrüner just came up from the beer cellar. I have bought 12-oz cans of two beers from Octopi at Aldi, including a Cherry Kolsch.
I went into an Aldi earlier this week to see if it had the Third Street Brewhouse Session Oktoberfest Helles in 4-packs of 16-oz. cans. It did not. Aldi has since responded to me that it won't get this beer this year.
I espied the Broegel Bock Beer, brewed at Octopi Brwg. I might have bought it, but the bottles have no dating I could find.
On an affiliated topic (soda | pop), Faygo and Shasta are the same corporation.

 

The 'hate' is being extended to "what ifs?" packaging of Aldi's beer brands versus the beer brands they may be trying to emulate: People wondering where are the cease and desist commands from the allegedly infringed-upon breweries? This generally means lawyers are getting involved. There is a general sense world-wide {oops - will the Internet get sued by Dogfish Head?} that lawyers getting involved is a bad thing.
In the Aldi stores I shop here in Chicago (and Cicero [where I found the Third Street Brewhouse Session Oktoberfest Helles]), beers from genuine craft breweries are frequently on offer. I mentioned the instances of Two Brothers Barrel Aged Atom Smasher and Revolution Fistmas.
It looks like it is time for me to again pull out and ship this paragraph from ""The Great Beer Trek" by Stephen Morris (1984), a book which changed my life (and which was bought remaindered for only $1.98).

I don't have a membership to Costco (or Sam's Club). To me, Aldi and Trader Joe's are two stores where I will shop for beers, in addition to Foremost, Binny's, Cardinal, Jewel, Butera, and Tony's.

 

Ok, found some of the Aldi Key Lime Sour ($6.99 a six pack) and gave it a try. It's not bad, but overall came across as a somewhat muted or slightly water down version of Sea Quench.

If both were staring me in the face and I was going to buy one or the other I'd spend a few bucks more and go with Sea Quench, but if that wasn't available at the time I would get the Key Lime Sour in a pinch.

 

This is why people worry about protecting trade dress. Any consumer who mistakes the two products through inattention to the specifics on the label and only tries the aldi version will have a diminished opinion of the dfh product. End masse, this devalues dfh's intellectual property

 

But really, should Corona and Shiner Bock not be knocked off?
I might be out here on the limb (& I just bought a cheap 12-pack of Shiner Bock @ Jewel!), but the primary market for these beers are not us here on B A, but people being 'trendy', and asking for a beer which is not BMC, but not a weird craft beer.
I would keenly enjoy a blind tasting between Aldi's knock-offs and the originals. I would not be stunned if the knock-offs were preferred in either instance.
The Shiner Bock knock-off I saw at the Aldi in Cicero, IL. {Why am I mentioning this specific Aldi? Because when I am there, it is not primarily for the Aldi; but for the Scatchell's Italian Beef stand across the street from it. The Scatchell's inside seating area is not yet open due to COVID-19. The Aldi has a public washroom I can use, which is sometimes critical when I have rode the CTA route #54 Cicero bus for the last 40 minutes.} would have been bought, despite being in bottles, if it had an identifiable packaging date thereupon. (Octopi Brwg.'s cans have a packaging date on the can bottom.) To me, there is no question this beer is a knock-off of Shiner Bock. The colors on the label are similar. There is a goat's head also therupon. But again, it comes down to what is in the package. That old, old quote from "The Great Beer Trek" (Have I mentioned it changed my life?) is on-topic.

 

Dad?

Go home.

 

ISO - Scatchell's Italian Beef sandwiches. (They must be really good to go thru all that to get some.)

 

In Oak Ridge, TN, the Aldi hasn't had it yet. In nearby Lenoir City, TN, Aldi did have it in stock, I bought a 6 and tried it. It's a decent sour for cheap.

 

Phhhhtttt.

People, I just went through the thread where respondents related the five beers they really, really want to taste.
For all of those who scribed it was Pilsner Urquell direct from the bright tank in the Czechia brewery; the foodie equivalent is this: The only way you will experience the exquisite taste and flavor of an Italian Beef sandwich is to (if | when this COVID-19 pandemic is deemed 'manageable') travel to Chicago and eat them here.
-They're not going to miraculously appear in Kiribati.-
Here is an image of the Scatchell's Italian Beef sandwich with hot peppers.

One of the other links on my regular bookmark page (which not enough of you visit) is a link to a Google Document by a member of the LTH Forum in which he rates all the Italian Beef sandwiches he has consumed. A search for Scatchell's will turn up a clutch of solid reviews of its Italian Beef. And unlike a whole bunch of venues which seem mostly concerned with earning a Michelin Star, having an Italian Beef sandwich will not cost you a week's salary (or the price that hoarder is dangling for the whale you were hoping to have).