Why Some Shoppers Suspect This Popular Beer Brand Might Be Making Trader Joe's Black Toad Dark Ale
Trader Joe's usually excellent store brand products are part of why the chain has so many fans. One reason its items are so high-quality is that many of them are produced by major, name-brand manufacturers. This includes Trader Joe's expansive line of alcohol options.
One popular beer, Josephsbrau Black Toad, bears the typical Joe-inspired nomenclature of a Trader Joe's brand. According to more than one source online, though, the beer is actually made by Goose Island. Some older reviews of Black Toad also named Goose Island as the brewer.
Why have so many speculated that this is the case? The brewery appears to have once been behind Stockyard Oatmeal Stout, another popular Trader Joe's beer. But is Goose Island still the brewery behind Josephsbrau Black Toad (if it ever was)?
Who actually makes Trader Joe's Black Toad dark ale?
While some reports claim that the dark ale is from the Chicago-based brewery Goose Island, others say it's the product of Gordon Biersch, based in San Jose, California. Notably, one of the detractors from Black Toad's potential Chicago home base is the Chicago Tribune.
Trader Joe's has carried its own noteworthy products since launching a private label Trader Joe's granola in 1972, meant to appeal to its California clientele. The early success of this business strategy led to its present-day bounty of Joe-themed product names, like the Josephsbrau Black Toad dark ale. New data even shows that shoppers are choosing private labels over all others. To help you choose where to shop, we ranked the top 12 grocery store private label brands.
But there's always a layer of uncertainty surrounding these store brands. The manufacturers of these products, including Black Toad dark ale, are often shrouded in secrecy since the public knows few details of these private label agreements. But available evidence suggests that production of Josephsbrau-labeled beers may have switched over to Gordon Biersch as early as 2014, which would mesh well with the mega brand's Germanic brewing style.