Okay, so think about this. Here we have a beer called Pistonhead Full Throttle.

Now, do you expect a beer that calls itself ‘‘Full Throttle’’ to be in some way extreme? Like maybe it’s got heaps of hops, or a high alcohol content or in some other way has opened the throttle all the way to craziness.

I would expect that. And this beer fails to deliver on that score. To a staggering degree.

I ask you, how can a beer that calls itself ‘‘Full Throttle’’ be a standard Euro lager that clocks in at 4.6 per cent? There’s nothing balls-out, full-tilt, living on the edge about that.

Forget ‘‘Full Throttle’’. They should have called this ‘‘School Zone’’, ‘‘Pedestrian Crossing’’ or ‘‘Speed Bump’’. Anything that denotes the beer’s distinct lack of full throttleness.

I suspect that a great many people have bought this beer because of the cool-looking can. There is no doubt it’s eye-catching, but it’s also evidence that Pistonhead like to spend more on their marketing than their beer.

You want to know about the flavour? Okay, it’s malt-dominated, but with some slight bitterness at the back from the Magnum and Perle hops. Really, if you picked any ordinary lager off the shelves and tried it, you’d know exactly what Full Throttle tastes like.