Do You Want To See My Hop Fridge?
Dok Brewing Company in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Collab with: To ØlIPA - West Coast Regular
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Score
6.96
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
20 July 2025. At Café De Welkom, Ghent. Cheers to the WzW crew!
A: hazy orange, small, foamy, white head.
A: melon, mango, orange peel, biscuit, green olive, rose water.
T: sweetish melon, pear, bit sourish citrus zest, biscuit, bitter herbs.
F: dry grassy hops, bitter orange peel, herbs, tea.
P: medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation.
I'm not a herbs expert myself, but the added flavours do complement the profile well.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
The legendary To Øl, one of those breweries that pioneered American style craft brewing here in old Europe, paid a visit to Dok Brewing Company here in Ghent, and it should come as no surprise that a rather unique beer arose from this clash of geniuses: a 'farmhouse West Coast IPA' (one can begin to imagine what that would be about) flavoured with not only hops (Chinook, Comet and Riwaka) but also meadowsweet and yarrow... Thinnish and open, off-white, bit irregular yet consistently lacing, stable head on a misty golden blonde beer with ochre tinge. Aroma of lime zest, pink grapefruit, fresh herb cheese but more in the way of fresh dill and lemongrass than yarrow and meadowsweet, yellow kiwi, pear, guava, wet limestone, white bread crust, herb tea coming up when warming and finally revealing glimpses of the meadowsweet and yarrow but in a fresh 'green' kind of way rather than dried, freshly mown lawn, green olives, young birch leaves, potato starch faraway in the background. Crisp, refreshing onset, 'clean' fruitiness of green pear, guava and kiwi, moderately carbonated with slick mouthfeel; smooth white-bready maltiness soaked in herbal effects from both the actually added herbs and the hops, dill passing by again as well as lime orchard, but eventually moving into the yarrow and (less recognisably) meadowsweet, two wild herbs I basically grew up with. A zesty, grapefruity and long-stretched hop bitterness ensues, while minerally and herbal effects linger, with notes of grass, green tea and lemonbalm leaves; ends dry, but not as bitter as one would expect from a West Coast IPA produced by two brewers who both know exactly what West Coast IPA is (or was). I do get the amaro association in the very end, though, as a wormwoody, astringent effect sticks to the root of the tongue. Typical present-day revivalist West Coast IPA - in its core at least, because the use of indigenous herbs is of course anything but typical; the 'farmhouse' association, however, is completely lost on me, but I guess one can see a saison of sorts in any kind of dry, spicy ale nowadays... I was fearing that the yarrow and the meadowsweet would overrule the hops completely, obliterating those noble West Coast aspirations, but the fact of the matter is that all elements do cooperate smoothly here - resulting in a distinct, but very quaffable IPA. Decent, but I think I was expecting just a tad more 'oomph' considering To Øl's involvement.