Lowlander 0.3% IPA

Lowlander Beer are a Dutch brewery who produce ‘botanical beers’ – beers that have various plant products or extracts added to impart flavour and aroma. Such ingredients have been used in brewing for centuries, especially in the Netherlands thanks to their role in the worldwide spice trade of days past. I’ve tried their 0.0% Wit in the past, but that was far from what I expect from a wheat beer, despite it being a perfectly drinkable beverage. However I can see the approach of adding botanicals working well with the hops in a good IPA.

In this 0.3% IPA, Lowlander Beer have used mango, cardamom and orange peel to augment the flavours that would normally come from the malts, hops and fermentation process. Mango and orange are quite common flavours and aromas in an IPA, especially an American style using Citra and Mosaic hops for example, so to add the real fruit into a brew I’d expect those flavours to be prominent. Cardamom is something I’m more used to picking out of a mouthful of curry than experiencing in a beer, but I can imagine it’s resinous, sometimes smoky flavours working well in moderation.

As an additional benefit of buying the beer you are also helping to donate to a charity – ‘Project Orange Elephant‘ in Sri Lanka. This charity helps to ethically protect farmers land from elephants by planting orange groves around their borders. It turns out elephants intensely dislike citrus, probably because of their sensitive noses/trunks, and the orange plants help to keep them away. I personally love citrus, so lets open up this can.

The beer pours a dark orange colour with a fair amount of haze. It produces a thick foamy head in the glass which sticks around for at least half of the drinking experience. On the nose, guess what? Big tropical mango and citrus orange aromas, with a hint of spice. Very fruity aromas here, I’m even getting some peach and pineapple. Good stuff!

Tasting, we get the tropical mango up front, offering sweetness, along with sherbet, and again a hint of peach and pineapple. There’s a background of orange peel bitterness to balance it out, and it works well. No discernible cardamom spice in the taste though. The beer is highly carbonated but the body is good, maybe the addition of the mango at work, and the mouthfeel is smooth. We get a long bitter finish to the drink.

Lowlander 0.3% IPA is thankfully a beer this time, and delivers on everything it offers up, with the mango, citrus and cardamom all present, though I couldn’t detect any spice in the taste. But I’ve had plenty of IPAs with big mango and orange flavours and aromas without having to use the real deal in their recipes, so I’d say the result here is slightly less spectacular in my opinion. The beer is also another in a long line of AF IPAs where the taste is a slight let-down after such a big aroma.

Buy Lowlander 0.3% IPA

I’ve seen Lowlander beers in Sainsbury’s stores, and even some bars and restaurants. Of course the easiest way to get your hands on some 0.3% IPA is via an online shop:

Nutritional Information (per 100ml, taken from the side of the can)
ABV	0.3%
Energy	24.7 kcal
Fat	<0.2g
Carbohydrates	5.8g
Sugar	2.6g
Protein	0.3g
Ingredients
Water, Barley Malt, Wheat, Hops, Yeast, Mango, Orange Peel, Cardamom
Additional Information
Country of Production	Netherlands
Brewer	Lowlander Beer – https://www.lowlander-beer.com/
Gluten Free?	No
Vegan Friendly?	No