If Halmstad Sommar Lager was a film character it would be Forest Gump. A little simple but full of a naive enthusiasm you simply can’t help but like.

On the surface it’s very plain to look at. The bottle label is all shiny and cheap looking, as though it was designed as a last-minute homework assignment by a fifth form art student.

In the glass a watery gold body sits under a standard bleached white head. It looks like, well, the way most industrial lagers look.

But like a box of chocolates sometime with beer you never know what’s in it until you take the first sip.

Halmstad Sommar Lager (Systembolaget Article No. 11410. 4.7ABV. 11.90SEK for a 330ml bottle) is brewed with Dutch elderflower and its subtle lemony green flavour is the soft centre of this beer, wrapped in a layer of young malt and cereal grain.

There’s a gentle level of carbonation and the metallic fizz of many industrial lagers is thankfully absent, as is any suggestion of hoppy bitterness.

On the label it says serve ice cold and I’m seconding that.  A beer this simple benefits from being chilled down and it boosts its drinkability credentials through the roof.

Halmstad Sommar Lager is my ‘surprise beer’ of the summer so far from a brewery I have not had many positive things to write about until now.  I’m giving it 3 out of 5, with minus points for the label design (just because a beer is cheap it doesn’t have to look cheap) and lots of plus points for the price tag (come on….11.90 SEK? What’s not to like?).

Could I have just drunk the best budget summer beer of 2010?