Lidl: Hatherwood: The Amber Adder: No 3 (England: Amber Ale: 4.3% ABV)
Visual: Ruddy red brown. Medium off white head and clear body. Very low carbonation.
Nose: Malt chocolate and toffee. Low hop character and bitterness. Orange. Brown sugar.
Body: Caramel. Prickling hop bitterness and greenery. Light glacier cherries and fruitcake. Creamy orange.
Finish: Bitter hops. Mild charring and greenery. Caramel. Some pineapple.
Conclusion: You know, it would be oh so easy to take the cheap route here, to take the piss as this is a Lidl beer. But, eh, I try to be vaguely professional and, well, this is ok. It plays everything straight down the middle, pretty much the base you would expect – caramel body, low level but present hop bitterness, and a bit of greenery character. The base you know? Oddly, color wise it doesn’t really look that much like an amber ale though, tending more towards a ruddy brown.
So it is solid at the base, but nothing more than that is done. It favours the malt over the hops, pushing more the light fruitcake notes. There are hints of a fruity hop character – in the finish it comes out as light pineapple, but it is definitely muted as an element. The hops are more a light generic bitterness and slight rough feel character. So, yeah, more on the malt and a decent toffee, chewy base.
Well, huh, that pretty much is the beer summed up, and fairly quickly as well – there is not much to say. It is ok but without any real character from the hops, what they do use gets leaden quickly. I will repeat that it isn’t actively bad, but so very middle of the road, no risk, no glory, no stand out character.
An inoffensive beer, it passes the time, tastes ok, but doesn’t do more than that.
Background: Style call was a hard one on this – they call it an amber ale but it doesn’t have much of that character. Ratebeer calls it a bitter which does fit better. In the end I have gone with my standard, which is lean towards what the brewer calls it and judge it as that. So in this case an Amber Ale. This was another beer given by the parents while I was up north. Many thanks! Drunk while listening to Jonathan Young’s cover of Dinosaur Laser Fight. Which is awesome. On Toast. I never claimed to be mature.
