ALTHOUGH maligned in many circles and shunned by countless former lovers for the drop in ABV, the Belgique brew Stella Artois is still the best selling beer in the UK.

Aldi, who have a history of creating similar products, have perhaps unsurprisingly created a product that looks and feels like the real deal, but how does Sainte Etienne Premium Lager Beer stack up?

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Price

Aldi’s Sainte Etienne is an incredible £3.49 for a 440ml four pack, that is a wallet-friendly £1.98 per litre. The same deal for Stella Artois in Sainsbury will set you back by comparison a whopping £5.05 or £2.87 per litre, that is a 37% difference and in this cost of living crisis every penny counts. Obviously pick the Stella up in your local corner shop and that heady price increase will extrapolate further.

Looks

Surprise surprise they look very (very) similar. That said Stella has recently updated their branding and the Aldi beer looks like the old design.

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Strength in numbers

Aldi’s Sainte Etienne Premium Lager Beer weighs in at 4.8%, that is a marginal increase on Stella’s 4.6% but nowhere near the early halcyon days back in the 70s when the beer from Belgium arrived on these shores at a pleasurable 5.2% ABV.

Real ale pro Simon Martin is on hand to drink us through the UK’s most popular beer and its Aldi copycat version.

“[it’s] probably being produced in France for Aldi being called Sainte Etienne.

“The clever thing about this beer is that they made it look like a can of Stella but they’ve used a French name and I say that’s clever because of course we all know Belgium is the home of Stella Artois and France of course borders Belgium and has very close ties with Belgium.

“So I think that’s very clever from Aldi, being just far enough away using using a different country with very similar beer styles.”

The all important taste test

Stella Artois:

“It’s not very good to be honest. It’s that kind of brewed in the UK, musty slightly metallic kind of earthiness that comes through.

“There’s just nothing to it for me, it leaves your mouth with a slightly kind of drying sensation like you’ve just sprayed some hairspray in your mouth by accident after brushing your hair. I’ve done that once, never again.

“Highly carbonated, very thin, very refreshing. I’ll be honest very refreshing, very thin.

“A little bit musty, a little bit kind of like copper like, tinny metallic and that kind of drying sensation on the palette.

“Not very good, not very good.”

Sainte Etienne:
“A decent malt content coming through on the aroma here, multi and hoppy. A really nice balance between the two, spicy peppery.
Grain, malt, wafer flavours coming through. A slight kind of light kind of almost oaty biscuitiness coming through, that then goes over to a bitterness. A peppery spicy bitterness.

“A slight bit of mustiness but at the same time it’s nowhere near the same as Stella Artois. It’s just a faint kind of hint of a mustiness.

“Now bear in mind I’ve just talked about malts and wafer flavours peppery, spiciness bitterness, a nice balance to the beer. This is about a pound a can in Aldi and they’ve made it look like a can of Stella Artois of course they have.

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“It’s a better beer, it’s a better all-round beer. Quite frankly the cheaper version from Aldi is a better tasting beer. A better tasting beer.

“I’m going to be fair to Stella now, if you want to drink a decent pint of Stella Artois – I had a fantastic pint at the Stella Brewery in Leuven in Belgium. It was terrific, it was really really good, really good.

“If you want to drink a decent UK brewed Stella Artois then try Stella Unfiltered. The last time I knew it was brewed at Camden Town Brewery, a fantastic UK Brewer.

“That for me is a decent beer, that’s a really decent beer. I’m trying to be fair to InBev and Stella Artois in saying if you want a decent pint drink it in Belgium, or if you want to drink something quite like what Stella used to used to be in the UK drink then drink Stella Unfiltered,” added real ale aficionado Martin. 

So there you have it, quite literally unfiltered. UK Stella is poor, Aldi’s version is better but in reality let’s hop over to Belgium for the real deal.