Klare goldene Farbe, mittelgroße weiße Schaumkrone. Geruch süß malzig, Honig, getreidig. Geschmack süß malzig, Bonbons, Citrusfrüchte, leicht würzig.

33 cl bottle. Pours clear and golden yellow with a small white head. Aroma is mild fruity, light peachy to citrusy. Toasted malty, bitter and slight fruity. Medium dry and crisp hoppy finish.

Clear golden color with white head. Aroma is exotic fruits, perfumy hops. Taste is buttery, artificially fruity. The aroma is fine, better than expected, the taste then is a letdown.

Hopfig heller Antrunk, Grasnoten. Weiche Herbe, nass grasig, weich. Gut. 10/9/9/9//9

Bottle from a Delhaize supermarket. The newest addition to this Leffe Royale theme, which the AB InBev marketeers are apparently exploiting to the bone. The hops which are supposedly showcased here is Crystal, a young derivative of Hallertau and Brewer’s Gold, and genetically close to Mount Hood. ’Membranously’ lacing, egg-white, thick and moussy head over a cristal clear, deeply ’old gold’ coloured beer with no visible fizz. Aroma strongly reeks of cooked vegetables, but in a ’brute’ and stinky, non-DMS kind of way: cooked Brussels sprouts, rotting salad leaves and broccoli, probably representing pasteurization at its worst in combination with whatever industrial form of hops they used. Apart from that, I get hints of old dry cookies, rotting grass, thistles, powder sugar, artificial iron (as in: old school ’can iron’, though this was poured from a bottle), powder sugar, sharp green tea, raw salsify, green walnuts, white bread dough, caramel, sweaty grains, fresh moss - in all, ’greener’ and, with some imagination, hoppier than most other Leffes, but still not very inviting at all. ’Dead’, almost lager-like, sweetish onset like most of the others in this brand, something honeyish and vaguely banana- and pear-like, medium to sharpish carbo, unmistakable ’cooked’ pasteurization flavor from onset to finish, over a smooth, lightly oily, slick, thinnish malt body, a bit grainy as well as lightly caramelly, leading to a slightly bittering finish, toasted but also gently hoppy but in a very industrial, bland yet persistent kind of way, herbal, somewhat spicy and a tad grassy, with retronasal cooked vegetables again; alcohol, admittedly, remains well hidden, probably because it is overpowered by the flavor of relatively harsh bittering toastedness and cooked pasteurization effects. I am willing to admit that this is hoppier than most other Leffes including most of the Leffe Royales - in fact, this is even closer to IPA than ’Leffe Cascade IPA’ is, without becoming actual IPA, of course - but whatever way you look at it, this is still cooked to death, stinky, simple and rough. I never had much sympathy for this brand and InBev Belgium will have to come up with a whole lot more to impress me with it. This is as off-putting as most of its brethren, but specifically seen in that whole new (or better put: renewed) Leffe Royale theme, this is not the worst: I found the Mount Hood version still the best of this series, but I can more or less live with this one. It has more ’green’ hoppiness than most of its congeners it seems, but I use the phrase ’green hoppiness’ with utmost care. Better than Cascade IPA, not as ’good’ as Mount Hood - this lands somewhere in the middle for me. I cannot think of any beer being sold at the moment which is more redundant than this one; I am not yet familiar with that Crystal hops variety, but you can rest assured that I will now be on the lookout for an American craft IPA in which this is used. This Leffe is about the worst way I can think of to get acquainted with this hop variety. And yet I can see a whole lot of less educated consumers appreciating this as a hoppy beer because it does have more lingering hop bitterness than all other Leffes combined - it’s about time the ’hop forward’ movement shifts to ’sour forward’ or something, I wonder what these awful capitalist pigs at AB InBev would make of a ’Leffe Sour’ concept...

Small, if rather stable just off-white head over finely carbonated coppery-orange beer. Not very hoppy nose, chewing gum, chlorophyl, bit malty. Fruity flavour, delicate for the want of complexity. Faint citrus, very faint hint at plastic. Again some toasted malts in the background. Balance bitterish-sweetish is good. Despite the lame looks, it feels almost fizzy. Medium bodied, quite slick. Dull, as was to be expected. And yet, I’d (again) hoped for better, this time.

330 ml. bottle sampled. Purchased @ ALBO. BBF 04/03/17. Another one of these, I am rather surprised that these are so popular, I expect this series to be axed quickly. Initially these were labelled as IPA’s (which is no longer the case) & I didn’t figure that Leffe drinkers were interested in IPA’s (which they clearly weren’t which is probably why the omitted that term) or that they cared about hops. I suppose they enjoy the base beer and don’t mind new variations. This one is with Crystal – a hop completely new to me but one that is apparently partially affiliated with Hallertau which makes sense to me. Anyway enough musing here…. Pours a darker golden than expected, lightly hazy, head collapses quickly like soap bubbles. Nose is interesting, big melon actually, sweet soapy fruits, sweet bread & cake, low very sweet mango, surprised that this actually carries some fruity hop profile. Taste carries clear USA hop but it very odd, empty fizzy, bitterness is massively herbal, weird unpleasant herbal pine hop, alcohol, cough syrup, soap, massive strange herbal bitterness in the finish, chemical. Big empty, sweetness mixed underneath, alcohol burns, it has weird sweet hop notes. Interestingly this one actually carries an interesting hop profile but it is too interesting, rreally weird notes, really hard to drink, harsh herabal, chemical acohol notes mixed with a more common hop profile, cough syrup, alcohol. I can see this appealing to some but I found it to be a real mess.

Pours clear, bit darker blonde. Small white head. Smell is weak, bit floral. Taste is amazingly chemical. The smell was kinda surprising, but the taste... Chemical bitterness that does not last towards the aftertaste, bit of fruity character, chemical undertone. sharp carbonation. Doesn’t really make me happy...

F: quite big, white, low to medium lasting. C: deep golden to amber, clear. A: spicy, floral, herb, light woody hoppy, malt, sugar, lemon grass. T: malty, herbal, lemon, white sugar, light orange, fruity, light woody, medium body, good carbonation, still commercial but finally for me tasty hoppy version of Leffe by now, 0,33l bottle from Delhaize in Brussels.