Today’s beer is from Hatherwood Craft Beer Company which is actually just Lidl’s own brand beer. In fact I found out the beer is actually brewed by historic British brewers Shepherd Neame which I think is a little cheeky on the advertising front. Anyway this is the Plunged Orange pale ale which I picked up for its relatively cheap price point, for a craft beer, at £1.

Visually the beer has a very clear amber colour and it did produce a decent white head. The aroma is quite pleasant with a sweet, orange blossom scent. The smell had me looking forward to the beer however the beer is incredibly off the mark flavour wise. Quite bitter which isn’t necessarily bad. The issue is the sickly orange flavour. Tastes very much like cough sweets which is simply not what you want to experience when you drink a beer.

A quick note on the can art: It’s okay nothing super exciting and the image does feel slightly slapped on.

Perhaps the price point should be indicative of what I should have expected but I don’t think that’s fair at all. There are plenty of beers in Lidl that I’ve had in the past at around this price point that have tasted much better. I think the issue is they’ve tried to get a bit to clever, trying to create something funky but haven’t invested the required effort to get it right. That cough sweet, artificial orange taste is awful unfortunately and ruins the beer. Not entirely undrinkable but I would not recommend this even at the £1 price.

Score 3/10

Thanks for reading! Cheers

If you’d like a snappier version of my reviews check out my Instagram!

Additional Information:

• Hops: Rakau, Admiral, First Gold, Mandarina Bavaria
• Malt: Pale Ale Malt
• IBU: 35
• ABV: 6%
• Gluten Free: No
• Vegan: No
• Purchase Price: £1
• Purchase Location: Lidl