11 March 2026. At Dok Brewing (Hal 16). Cheers to the Teamleader crew!

A: clear golden, stable, foamy, white head.
A: citrus peel, grapefruit, melon, scallion, grass.
T: sweetish melon & pear; bitter citrus peel, biscuit & bread crust.
F: piney hops, bitter grapefruit & citrus pith.
P: medium body, slick texture, soft carbonation.
Dry, bitter, nothing really special.

Dok has become a loyal customer of Yakima Chief Hops, one of the leading hop producing companies in the New World - and got their hands on one of their novelty products: Cryo Fresh Hops, an attempt to capture the 'fresh hop' experience in a pellet, so that the brewer does not need to bother about actual fresh hops anymore... From tap at Kantien, owned by Dok but located in a most lovely setting at the edge of the Watersportbaan outside of Ghent's city centre. Snow white, densely moussey, fluffy, membrane-lacing, firm head on a lightly hazed, deep pure warm yellow-golden beer. Aroma of honey pomelo, lychee, dry bread crust, freshly cut grass, grapefruit zest, minerals, lemonbalm, unripe melon, lime blossom, touch biscuit. Sweetish, clean, rounded onset, some green pear, unripe melon and vague pineapple, very sharply carbonated (as usual with tapped Dok beers - when are they finally going to learn that not every beer style needs to be saturated with so much carbon dioxide!); slick cereally core, gradually bittered by citrusy, peppery hops also providing a light tropical flavour of kiwi and papaya retronasally. Long, wormwoody, tonic-ish bitterness ensues, quenching and drying. Ignoring that overcarbonation, this APA delivers well-measured, effective flavours in a non-extreme, balanced yet contemporary, modern way. Solid, classic Dok style APA - but whether this new Yakima product manages to convey a flavour of fresh hops credibly is up to debate as far as I am concerned - it lacks a natural kind of earthy edge for that and feels a tad too sleek and artificial, in my opinion.