Don't Mention the Yeast
Dok Brewing Company in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
IPA Regular|
Score
7.21
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Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
IPA hopped with two (very) classic American hop varieties (Cascade and Columbus) on the one hand and two New Zealand varieties (Motueka and Rakau) on the other hand - but that is somehow of less importance here: more significantly, Lallemand's Aurora yeast strain was used to ferment it, a strain intended to ferment at somewhat cooler temperatures, allowing for higher alcohol volumes and producing little esters that would otherwise get in the way of the hop aromas. Dok, which has worked with these innovative Lallemand yeasts before, describes this particular one as a "northern IPA", which is closely associated with this Aurora yeast strain and aims to compromise between the aromatic power of hazy IPAs and the cleanness and bitterness of West Coast IPAs - but this effect has been achieved before in what was called "mountain IPAs", and in a certain sense has become very common, as so many present-day European and American IPAs hover between both extremes some way or another. Anyway, on to the can, purchased at the Delhaize supermarket at the Sterre in Ghent. Thick and frothy, snow white, cobweb-lacing, rather coarse and large-bubbled but very stable head on a misty pale yellow blonde robe with greenish tinge and tiny, but numerous bubbles rising up in the middle. Aroma of fresh pine needles or spruce tips, granadilla, lemon thyme, lime leaf, lemon blossom, carambola, jasmin and other subtropical flowers, spice crackers, freshly cut agave, green kiwi, bath foam, white bread. Crisp, sweetish onset, carambola, rambutan, pepino and kumquat impressions, slight sourishness also from the lively carbonation, slick mouthfeel but not very oily like most West Coast IPAs; smooth white-bready core under and through brightly aromatic 'yellow-green' hoppiness, bringing back the piney, succulent plant and flowery aromas but not branching into those typically sweet tropical fruit scents you get in a typical hazy IPA. Bitterness is crisp and peppery, matching this 'yellow-green', cactus- and spruce-like aromatic profile very well; it does seem to last a bit longer than in NEIPA and its ilk so I get the idea of creating something in between 'eastern' and 'western' IPA extremes and this idea has been executed very well here. Nevertheless, I maintain that 'in-between IPAs' are nothing new - in fact there is a vast ocean of them throughout the Western World now, of which the vast majority simply refers to itself as 'IPA' without specifications like 'northern' (or 'mountain'). The ultimate goal of this Aurora yeast strain therefore escapes me a bit - but I can imagine it is a nice new gimmick for brewers, and I conclude that Dok made a really fine IPA here of whatever kind (bearing in mind that creating new IPA variants has been a commercially driven trend in the craft beer world for many years and has apparently still not ceased today...). Surely one of my personal favourites among Dok's many, many IPAs so far (though I lost track of them a bit, to be honest).
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
1st November 2025. Fun stuff - Heathrow BA lounge - now delayed flight to Monte Carlo.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
33cl can, BB 30/07/2026, batch# DOK267.
Claire dorée, col blanc épais.
Arôme sur un bouquet plaisant assez floral - léger appui malté en support avec une douceur presque de pollen/mielleuse qui arrive en retrait tout en ayant aussi qcq éléments de citronnelle.
Palais sur une belle présence houblonnée - parfumée - léger tropical, parfum floral et herbacé avec léger effet de pin et en rétro-nasal un délicat abricot en support avec une pointe de pamplemousse rose. Fraîcheur rappelant aussi le basilic thaï voir la citronnelle et feuilles de kéfir.