The best beers to buy at Lidl, tried and tasted
It's 30 years since German supermarket Lidl first opened its doors in the UK. In that time it has gained a reputation for offering some cracking, keenly priced food items and superstar wines, but what of the beer aisle?
I put Lidl's beer range through a rigorous taste test to mine for quality bargains. This included a selection of Lidl's own-label products as well as some of the well-known brands it offers.
The range leans heavily towards lager, as you might expect with research suggesting that over 70 per cent of Brits prefer it to ale. However, it does have a compact but well chosen offering for ale lovers, too. And keep an eye out in the fabled Middle of Lidl for occasional specials; I've seen four-packs of Thornbridge's legendary Jaipur IPA in there at a bargain-basement price and the large 'selection pack' of German beers that is usually released around Oktoberfest is always hotly anticipated.
Examining the range as a whole, I quickly noticed that almost every bottle is labelled 'premium'. To paraphrase The Incredibles, if everything is super then nothing is – the descriptor loses all meaning. I therefore tasted the range blind, to prevent undue influence from the packaging or my own personal bias.
My final list features those I consider the very best available – as well as a couple that miss the mark and are best avoided.
After the big reveal, my verdict is that Lidl offers a number of extremely successful big-name duplicates that offer a lot of flavour at a very competitive price. So if you're accustomed to sticking to your usual brand of beer, perhaps it's time for a taste test of your own.
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The Lidl beer taste test winners – and losers
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Laura Hadland is an award-winning drinks writer, a regular Telegraph correspondent, and author of 50 Years of CAMRA, named the Best Beer Book in the World 2022 by Gourmand International. Her latest book, Beer Festivals, is out now. Read more of her work here.
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