50cl can. A clear yellow golden beer with a white lacing. Aroma of grainy malt, cardboard, straw. Taste of strong grainy malt, straw, cardboard, metallic hops, meh...

Can from Aldi. Pours clear, pale golden with bubbles and a small, white head. The aroma is faint and contains malt, corn, grass, some cardboard and iron, and towards the end of the tasting more chemical elements like toothpaste. It tastes light sweet and light bitter. Watery texture, short finish and lively carbonation. It was drinkable - for a while, at least.

From Aldi supermarket, Foam: snow white medium size. Colour: clear pale golden yellow. Aroma: weak bread, malt, a hint of hops. Taste: a hint of malt, bread, sweetness, metallic tones, more than usual carbonation, all together very cheap beer and corresponding bellow than average taste.

Pale lager made by Martens for the Aldi supermarket chain, sold in cans which are nearly identical to those of Aldi’s Schultenbräu Edelpils, only the name is different, which raises strong suspicion of ’Hopvil’ just being the new name of Schultenbräu; contrary to the latter, however, this one seems to be brewed from pure malt, without the addition of maltose, and thus meets the requirements of the German Reinheitsgebot, which is mentioned on the can as well. I would therefore argue this is an adapted, all-malt follow-up to Schultenbräu, but it is certainly worth investigating if the recipe has indeed changed (in omitting the maltose); if it hasn’t, Schultenbräu should be listed as an older alias of this Hopvil. The beer itself bears a medium thick, slightly lacing, loose, snow white head and has a cristal clear, pale golden blonde colour with vivid fizz. The aroma is very weak, with traces of white bread, starch and wet paper, a very weak touch of honey as it warms up, unmistakable ’can’ iron and a hint of grass. Neutral taste, but I do get a touch of weak bready maltiness, vaguely sweetish but fortunately not corn-like, with a soft and slightly powdery starch-like effect in the finish, where a light grassy hop bitterness appears as well, and though it remains subdued, it does linger a bit and accomplish some balance - though in a beer this neutral, there is not much to balance out, of course; there is a light metallic ’zing’ in the middle as well. Mouthfeel is obviously thin, not to say watery, but with good fizzy carbonation, even stronger than usual in this style. Not much to say about this: a neutral, very run-of-the-mill pale lager like any other one, but it does feel kind of ’pure’ and there is nothing truly off-putting to it. For its low price, I guess this is a good bargain, if you like this style - perfectly drinkable and bland ’lawn mower beer’. Yet, as far as I remember: not much difference with the original Schultenbräu Edelpils, if any...