If you bought a keg in Greensboro, NC you might have gotten some crappy beer with a more expensive label, says the News-Record. David Edward Essa, 34, and Robert Christopher Martin, 35 are charged with three counts of the delightful-sounding felony “obtaining money by false pretenses,” after placing more expensive brand names on cheaper beer.
“Most retailers take seriously their responsibility not to fraudulently deceive consumers purchasing alcoholic beverages,” said Alan Fields, district supervisor for Greensboro’s ALE Office. “This is the first time in 20 years, I’ve heard complaints about switching brand labels.”
In April, ALE Agents covertly ordered a keg of beer labeled with the Bud Light brand from an employee at the University General Store. They also obtained samples of the Bud Light on tap at the Spring Garden Bar and Pizzeria. Analysis of both samples indicated the beer was Busch Light in both cases.
The ALE investigation also revealed that employees at Westerwood Tavern were selling Keystone Light beer from a tap, but representing the product to consumers as Coors Light, a more expensive beer.
ALE agents? Analysis of samples? CSI:Beer!
What’s on tap: Not what you think, ALE agents say [News-Record] (Thanks, Dan!)
(Photo: qnr )
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I sometimes wonder if this doesn’t happen that often or if it’s just that people don’t get caught that often.
Anyhow, ALE should have their own show, yes.
I wonder if their “sampling” was just throwing a kegger. Also love the name of the office.
This reminds me of the tests that were secretly done on wine snobs where they substituted $5 wines for $100 and the snobs would talk about how incredible this expensive wine was and why it was so expensive.
There’s probably a bigger difference in taste between Coors Light and Keystone Light than there is between $5 Cabernet and $100 Cabernet
Ok, I’ll be the first beer snob.
Bud Light? I thought they were referring to real beer.
Of course nobody noticed.
This aggression will not stand, man.
I would guess that this happens pretty frequently. It just that people get away with it. If you’re not doing side by side comparisons, it’s going to be pretty hard for the average person to tell one watery light beer from another.
@Wokcus: Not so hard for your average alcoholic.
There’s a cheaper beer than Bud Light? I tasted the stuff and just assumed it was about the cheapest you could buy.
@andrewe:
You have no idea how bad beer can taste until you get into Busch and Natty Land.
I wondered why I have tasted beer and it didnt taste like what it usually does, now I know!
The ALE (Alcohol Law Enforcement) in NC takes their jobs VERY seriously.
In college, you could always tell when ALE was in town because there were no house parties and everyone seemed to be out of town for the weekend.
What analysis are they doing to determine what kind of beer it is? Taste testing? (Begins drooling while thinking of that job)
Hey, at least it wasn’t The Beast, that could have killed someone.
If you drink a particular brand of beer, you can definitely tell the difference. Just like smokers can tell the difference between Marlboros and GPCs.
I sometimes wonder about this at restaurants and such…I’ve had a few times where I’ve asked the waiter to take my drink back and bring back a glass of what I paid for. I’m usually right…the other times, they just need to tap a new keg, so I’m still kind of right
@RandoX: True. I can pick a Sam Adams Boston Lager out of a blind lineup. I can pick it out of a lineup of other Sam products. People know their brew.
keyston= slightly off bacth of coors, same goes for busch and bud, so really, it’s all coming from the same place in the beginning…
This should be a capital crime.
@Toof_75_75: I stupidly have ordered beer at a local resturant three times over the course of a year, and I have that same thing happen, it just does NOT taste like what I ordered…I always have them take it back and get something in a bottle.
Wait, there’s a difference between bud light and busch light?
American beer is all rat p*ss. Sit down and savor a nice cold bottle of Celebrator.
@HIV 2 Elway: This unchecked agression just will not stand man! DONNIE you’re out of your element! Favorite movie, of all times.
I am a beer brewer, and I wouldn’t have caught this, because I wouldn’t have been drinking coors. And coors isn’t an ale, its a lager. It bottom ferments.
If they were serving keystone in place of an actual good beer, that would be pretty ballsy.
sorry the article is bush/budlight. same difference.
@B: I was thinking the same thing. All those brands taste like Lucifer’s urine mixed with the sweat on his lower back after a hard day of torturing souls. And I actually like beer! And by “beer,” I mean actual beer. Preferably brewed in Europe. In a pinch, Blue Moon. Mmmm, Blue Moon… (runs out door to nearest liquor store.)
@GreatCaesarsGhost: That is the official recession indicator. Everyone goes to Natty
keystone vs. coors? can people taste the difference?
@maxforrest32:
Yeah, generally speaking, it’s a little safer to go with bottles.
I don’t want to hear any nonsense about American beers being bad. We make the same beers Europe makes. The only thing Europe has, is the German purity law. Most microbreweries in America make all your favorite ales and lagers, that taste just as good as the ones in Europe. If you’re embarrassed of BudLight and beers such as that, blame High schoolers and Jimmy Frat boy.
that’s just wrong. are barkeeps really that freakin cheap? what’s the cost difference between a keg of bud light & a keg of keystone light – $20? a keg has 1920oz. of beer – that’s 160 12oz. glasses. assuming 15% pour-off, you’re still looking at 136 glasses. that’s a savings of 15¢/glass.
stingy bastards.
@mac-phisto: wonder if all the places selling coke really have RC Cola tapped. That’d be some BS
I’m no alkie, but I would definately know that it wasn’t the beer I ordered, which would most likely be Miller Lite.
@Bladefist: go to canada & get some beer that hasn’t been pasteurized (like alexander keith’s IPA) & you’ll think differently. i like a lot of american brands, but there’s definitely a difference – esp. when you don’t bombard your frothy goodness with taste-death rays.
@mac-phisto: IIRC from the many brewery tours I’ve taken, beer from kegs is not pasteurized so it must be constantly be kept cold. Don’t ever buy a warm keg of beer.
Laugh? Cry? Go buy a six pack of Black Lager before it goes back to only being available in the variety pack for another 8 or so months?
They did this at one of the bars I used to hang out in during college. The tap handles said Miller Lite, Coors Lite, and Bud Lite but if you looked at the kegs, they were all Keystone lite.
@testsicles: Those bastards.
The fact that they’re ripping off people drinking Bud Light is hilarious. But seriously, you don’t mess with a man’s (or woman’s) beer.
Also why I drink dark ales. Can’t really cheat as easily with those.
While there is no excuse for this. How about when you go to a restaurant with ginger ale on the menu and they serve you sprite with a splash of coke for color. I don’t know who thinks that is actually ginger ale, but that person needs to be shot.
For the record this has happened to me at ESPN Zone and houston’s. I was explained this method by a waiter at ESPN Zone so I obviously did not order it. Then at Houston’s I was brought the glass of sprite with a splash of coke. When i said this is not ginger ale the server was like oh, we do have ginger ale. Turns out the bartender didn’t actually crack open a bottle like he should have.
Replacing crappy beer with even crappier beer, Yeah it would be tuff to notice the difference.
@cronick: Uh, no. Not into craft beer, I take it?
Word to the wise, if you’re ordering your kegs within 20 miles of a college, stick to Natural Light.
A similar practice is done at many restaurants/catering halls that have open bar. Towards the end of the night, they replace the top shelf liquor with cheap stuff in the top shelf bottle.
@Toof_75_75: Eh, I’m a Yuengling man anyway. Made me laugh.
@Bladefist: I’ll never apologize for loving Natural Light. It got me through college, damnit.
@homerjay:
That would depend entirely on which $5 bottle and which $100 bottle you used for your blind study. I’ve found a few bottles at my local wine shop that retailed for $10 that would knock the socks off many pricer wines.
I can’t tell you about the “hints of currant” or anything like that, but I can tell you that I’ve had enough “fine” wine to identify a good tasting wine from a bad tasting one, and most $5 wines taste nothing like their more expensive counterparts.
@Bladefist: ALE is the law enforcement office, not the type of beer.
@Bladefist: But RC is delicious!
@nrich239: NC ALE take their job way TOO “seriously”. Overzealous would be a better description. When I was in college in NC, among other things they did:
- They regularly arrested whole cars full of college students merely for legally buying beer at an off-campus grocery store with an under-21 friend waiting in the car. There was no evidence whatsoever that the person of legal age intended to share the beer with the under-21 individual, and it was usually put in the trunk. ALL people in the crowd were arrested, even over-21 students who were not the ones that even bought the beer. All people 21 or older were charged with “providing to minors” and all under 21 people were charged with underage possession of alcohol. Most got off easily in court if they got a lawyer, but it was mainly meant as an intimation tactic. They only stopped doing this once the university and local police publicly complained and requested that they stop.
- They arrested people for underage drinking for merely being present and assisting, after having consumed alcohol, when students with alcohol poisoning were taken to campus health clinics or local hospitals, by staking out both. This had the probable of actually discouraging people from seeking medical attention when a friend had dangerous alcohol poisoning.
- Undercover officers infiltrated various campus groups to look for underage drinking activity. And I’m not just talking about walking into a public party, but actively using subterfuge.
- Staking out local liquor stores, and harassing anyone “young looking” who was leaving after making a purchase as they walked to their car. This would typically involve checking everyone’s ID, despite the fact that an ID check had presumably just been done moments earlier inside the state store.
Good job, NC ALE! Society would fall apart without you.
Law is the law, and ethics are ethics. But damn, it’s hard to feel sympathetic over a bunch of North Carolina frat boys getting ripped off…
@mac-phisto: I brew beer, which is not pasteurized obviously. And pasteurizing beer just consists to heating it up to 120 to kill any remaining yeast. So it shouldn’t change THAT much.
@RandoX: Good call. My bad.