Rather would Hatherwood?

Lidl has given its own-brand Irish beers a smart makeover, and removed the worrying "limited edition" wording from some of the good ones, happily. They've also brought some of their UK counterparts over, and I picked up a set last time I was in. €1.29 a can was the damage. As far as I know these were brewed at Shepherd Neame, though no provenance is given. "Hatherwood" is the wholesome-sounding fake English brewery.

There's nothing wholesome about an awesome craft citrus-infused pale ale. Plunged Orange, at 6% ABV, looks to be stealing the clothes of Elvis Juice, or at least undercutting them. The can goes to the trouble of naming four different hops but I couldn't taste any of them, just a sickly orange syrup. The aroma too is like an orangeade, one of the 1980s ones, created before anyone thought to put actual oranges in. It's easy drinking and doesn't get cloying, but really doesn't taste like beer. I can see this working very well as a fridge-filler for parties. It's inexpensive and inoffensive. Snobby beer swirlers should drink something else: this is plainly not for them, and that's not its fault.

How to pick between the next pair: an IPA at 5.4% ABV and an "American" IPA supercharged to 5.5%? I decided to start at the lower level and work up.

Bitter Iron is a perfect clear amber-gold in the glass. The name does prepare you for what happens in the flavour: a harsh metallic bitterness softened only slightly with a syrupy artificial fruit, like Lucozade. There's a harsh dry scratch at the back of the throat, and it leaves the palate in a cloud of old musty dust. There's maybe a wizened old geezer somewhere in England who accepts that this is what IPA is supposed to taste like, but it's like no English IPA I know. It feels like an effort has has been made to balance old-school IPA bitterness with modern sweet hop fruit but it hasn't worked at all.

Let's see what happens when we go US-style. The colour of Twisted Knot is different -- a coppery amber -- but as well as the strength being similar, the hop bill is similar and the dry metallic aroma is similar too. The flavour differs, however. There's a quite smoky acridity and a roasted bite akin to what you'd find in a dry stout. It's quite a shock from something believing itself an American IPA. Not unpleasant, though. That metallic bitterness becomes a more luxurious liquorice and it's altogether cleaner and more balanced than either of the previous. Once you get used to it being not at all to style, this is rather enjoyable. Close your eyes and pretend it's a black IPA.

There are certainly worse uses for €1.29 than any of this lot, and they showed a lot more character than I had been expecting: no watery blandness, for sure. Depending on one's mood, I think each does have a valid use case.