Value Beers at the LCBO
You don’t need to be a big spender these days to realize that life is becoming ever more expensive. Hell, a trip to the aisle of pretty much any grocery store will confirm that the simple act of feeding yourself and your loved ones is a lot pricier than it used to be, and on an entirely different level, don’t get me started on the cost of Scottish single malts!
With this in mind, I recently embarked upon a tasting expedition to discover which of what I describe as ‘value’ beer brands at the LCBO represents the best value, meaning that I’d actually enjoy, or at least not mind drinking it, and it’s priced below what seems to have become the industry standard of at least $3.20 a 473 ml can.
To keep the parameters in check, I set my upper price limit at $2.75 a 473 or 500 millilitre can and eliminated from contention all of the basic mainstream lagers, since I doubted there were any pleasant surprises to be found in the Laker, Busch, or Old Milwaukee line-ups. (Fun fact: Once the Labatt flagship, Blue has now been relegated to value brand status at $2.35 a 473 ml can. How the mighty have fallen!) I used only everyday pricing as my benchmark, and while I tried to be as inclusive as possible, I unavoidably missed some qualifiers like Cool Beer’s Buzz Hemp Beer and Holsten Premium, both of which were not available at any of the LCBOs I visited.
(Prices listed are from the LCBO, but where available each brand is sold at a similar price point across Canada.)
I assigned each beer a Rating score and a Value score, the former being consistent with the guidelines found in ‘The Ratings’ section of this site and the latter being a combination of ‘would I drink it?,’ ‘would I enjoy it?’, and ‘how cheap is it exactly?’
Beers are presented in order of their Rating score.
Jever (4.9%; $2.75/500 ml): Back in the proverbial day, long before German imports beyond the Bavarian ‘Big Four’ of Löwenbräu, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, and Spaten proliferated, Jever was a bit of a big deal. Relatively independent – it was owned by Dortmunder Brau und Brunnen prior to being taken over by Radeburger in 2005 – the brewery’s classic northern German pilsner was how a lot of North American lager fans got their hop fix.
Today’s Jever doesn’t seem to have the same hop kick it used to, but is still pretty damn satisfying at the price. Pouring a light to medium gold, the nose is all leafy, herbal, very lightly spicy hop, while the body seems to be a bit more dense and caramelly up front than it used to be, perhaps with greater residual sugar content to balance the hoppiness, but is reassuringly dry, bitter, and herbaceous on the back end and finish. Still a lovely pils and at a very lovely price.
Rating: 83; Value: 94
DAB Dortmunder Export (5%; $2.75): Once upon a time, this beer was said to exemplify the Dortmunder Export style of lager, characterized by its firm maltiness and balanced hop. (Footnote: The development of one of my favourite Toronto beers, Godspeed Brewing’s Otsukaresama, was inspired by the cans of DAB the founder and his family consumed during construction of the brewery.) The full name of the brewery is Dortmunder Actien Brauerei, and while it dates from the mid-1800s, it is today owned in the majority by Radeburger.
Pouring a lovely gold with a decent white head, it does still boast a fairly dense aroma of malted barley, fresh and lightly floral, evocative of a walk in a grain field, but in concentrated form. The flavour begins with a touch of sweet caramel, moving to a drier, but still malt-forward body holding light herbal notes, a hint of toffee, rising grassy bitterness, and a bit of cereal grain, finishing off-dry with a mild to moderate, leafy bitterness. All-in-all, very much as I remember it and, served cold, a good value refresher.
Rating: 80; Value: 90
Faxe Amber (5.2%; $2.45/473 ml): Although European in origin, this is brewed in Canada by Amsterdam Brewing of Toronto, which was acquired in 2022 by Denmark’s Royal Unibrew, makers of the Faxe line of beers. In terms of ingredients, the listing on the can includes barley malt and barley, the latter presumably unmalted, plus maize and glucose syrup.
More a coppery gold than amber in colour, the nose has caramel and toasted grain, a bit of floral earthiness, and a faint hint of licorice. The palate entry is of lightly sweet caramel, simple but expressive, becoming well-balanced between malty sugar and slightly grassy, slightly dried leafy hop bitterness on the mid-palate, and finishing dry and mildly bitter. There’s not a lot going on in this beer, but that also means there is little there to offend.
Rating: 75; Value: 83
Köstritzer Edel Pils (4.8%; $2.50/500 ml): The Bitburger-owned Köstritzer brewery is well-known among aficionados of German lagers for its Schwarzbier, an iconic black lager brewed in Bad Köstritz, about 60 kilometers south of Leipzig. Much less heralded is this pale pils, which retails in Ontario for 70 cents less a half-litre.
Indeed pale gold and brilliantly clear, the Edel Pils has a distinct cereally note to its aroma, not sweet and wort-like in an underattenuated fashion, but rather a bit reminiscent of a bowl of grain-based cereal – fresh, grainy, and just a bit floral. The palate entry is similarly a bit sweet and floral, leading to a mid-palate that continues sweet and a bit sugary before developing a light and leafy hop bitterness in the second half, finishing fairly dry and grassy. While perfectly quaffable when served cold on a hot summer day, most of the time my advice would be to spend the extra money on the Schwarzbier.
Rating: 74; Value: 83
Tuborg Gold (5.5%; $2.65/473 ml): A Danish brand with almost a century and a half of history behind it, Tuborg was folded into the portfolio of fellow Copenhagen brewer Carlsberg in 1970. Although its production has shifted to Ontario following Carlsberg’s acquisition of Waterloo Brewing, the change has been so recent that as of early April, it was still possible to find 500 ml cans of the Danish beer in the LCBO system.
An all-barley malt beer, according to the ingredients listed on the can, this is bright gold with a faintly floral, faintly musty aroma that is both cereally and mildly sweet. On the palate, it starts with a gently sweet muesli flavour before growing more caramelly and softly floral on the mid-palate and drying in the lingering and slightly metallic finish. Not what I remember Tuborg to be, but then again, it has been many years since I last tried the brand. This is not something that inspires me to return to it, though.
Rating: 74; Value: 80
St. André Bohemian Style Lager (4.6%; $2.00/473 ml): Back in 1999, I ran into a local brewer named Doug Pengelly on Toronto’s John Street and he told me of his intent to start contract brewing a pilsner. The times being what they were, when appreciation of golden lagers were not exactly at their peak, I suggested perhaps trying a Vienna lager instead, and whether through influence or happenstance, several months later St. André was born, brewed out of the since defunct F&M Brewing in Guelph.
Although now billed a ‘Bohemian style lager,’ whatever that might be, and brewed in Toronto by Cool Beer, the colour of St. André could still have you thinking Vienna lager, and even the caramelly, toasted grain aroma isn’t a million miles away from what it should be for the style. On the palate, however, in place of the luxurious maltiness that is the hallmark of the Vienna style, you have a rather thin, sugary rather than malty flavour with a grassy sourness on the finish. The decades have not been kind to this beer.
Rating: 65; Value: 72
Löwenbräu Original (5.2%; $2.35/473 ml): Back in the day, the executive vice-president of brewing for Molson told me a story about when that company brewed Löwenbräu under licence in Canada. They couldn’t sell it as brewed to the original recipe, he said, so they modified it to be more ‘Canadian’ in character and brewed up a special batch for the Löwenbräu executives to sample when they came over on their yearly visits. The beer Canadians were drinking, then, was not even close to what Münchners enjoyed, but the misled German brewery heads always went home happy with the state of their beer in this country.
Now owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, this Löwenbräu is, like the A-B InBev-owned Spaten, brewed domestically and definitely contains barley, although what else might be in there is unknown. Bright gold in colour, it has a distinctly cereally aroma that reminds me of a freshly-opened box of Corn Flakes, alongside soft grassy and floral notes and a hint of icing sugar. The body has a decent malt backbone, with a touch of caramelly sweetness and some grain husk flavours, but the finish turns rather sour instead of bitter and leaves a lingering flavour evocative of old leaf lettuce. Better than Spaten, but not by a whole lot.
Rating: 63; Value: 65
Berliner Pilsner (5%; $2.75/500 ml): Another product of the Radeburger Gruppe, brewed at their Berliner-Kindl-Schultheiss brewery in the German capital. Other than that, and the fact that it’s made with hop extract rather than pelletized or whole leaf hops, there’s not much information available about the brand, though.
First impressions are good, from the bright gold colour to the pure white foam and the fresh and leafy, although also a bit sweet, aroma. The nose settles quickly into more of a light fruitiness, however, and the foam likewise dissipates in fairly short order, which definitely detracts from its initial promise. That unfulfilled promise continues on the palate, with a sweetish, slightly orangy entry that gives way quickly to a sharp hop bitterness that is more abrasive than appetizing, and lingers with a distinct metallic twang on the finish. While technically sound enough, it’s not something I particularly want to finish.
Rating: 63; Value: 62
Spaten München (5.2%; $2.50/473 ml): Despite the evocation of Munich in the name, and the declaration on the label of it being “German Style Beer” (what?), this is brewed in Canada by Labatt, at one or more of the six breweries listed on the can. Whether it is brewed to Reinheitsgebot standards here is also unknown, as the only ingredient information provided is that it contains barley.
It does boast a rich golden colour and pours with a generous white head, but there is definitely something lacking in the aroma, which is rather dull and evocative of wet grain and very little hop. (German Spaten has a rather robust hoppiness.) The disappointment continues on the palate, which starts sweetish and cereally, grows rather alfalfa-ish and ever so slightly bitter in the middle, and finishes, curiously enough, in an odd mix of grassy bitterness and grainy sweetness. A German Spaten drinker would be aghast, as am I.
Rating: 60; Value: 62
