IPA

Huge, yellowish head, rather stable over clear metallic, paler copper beer. Rather fade nose, faintly spicy/herbal. Where’s the Amarillo, the Citra...? Bitter, dull spicy/pharmaceutical flavour, wild or even oxydized hops. Medium bodied, not very carbonated. Dull. Maybe an IPA (?) with C-hops, but not one with C-taste.

From 33 cl bottle. Clear golden blonde color. Uneven white head with good retention. Aroma’s: a bit resin, fruity (sweet fruit), flowery. Retronasal it’s sweet fruits, sugarry. Flavor is moderate bitter with a light fruity sourness and light sweetness. Medium bodied. Finishes somewhat dry, moderate bitter. If you forget this is supposed to be an IPA it’s not bad.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Brand IPA (by Brand Bierbrouwerij (Heineken)):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.4/5

15/V/15 - 30cl bottle @ the Abeels (NL) - BB: III/2016 (2015-629) Thanks to the Abeels for sharing the bottle!

Clear dark blond beer, creamy white head, little stable, non adhesive. aroma: citrus, fruity, some peaches. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bitter, soapy, some citrus, resinous touch, bit sweet. Aftertaste: fruity, caramel, hoppy, bitter, some citrus, bit malty. Decent!

Fles 30cl thuis. Hoppig, citrus, bitter, maltig, zoetje. (4-2015).---------.

33cl Bottle from AH. Clear golden orange colour, white head. Aroma of some soft citrus, perfume, some caramel, malts, fruity. Flavour is medium sweet, malty, perfume, citrus, mango, orange, light bitter finish. Light to medium bodied. It’s ok but is clearly aimed at a larger audience, as it lacks oomph and bitterness. Too easy, but nice nevertheless.

Clear golden colour, white head. Aroma of straw, malts, light hops and carrots. Quite bitter flavour, malts, straw. Finish malts, straw and light hops. Definitely not a bad beer. Rather nice, albeit a bit on the safe side.
(from 33cL bottle @ home)

One of the larger Dutch breweries tackling a style which is conquering the world at the moment, not unlike pale lager conquering the world a century ago... Pretty and very deep ’old gold’ colour with orangey hue, clear with low fizz, under a loose and rather thin, not too stable, egg-white head. Aroma is less ’American’ and citrussy than I had hoped for, but still pleasant, with impressions of lemon zest, marmelade, fresh pineapple, seaweed, straw, acacia honey, orange peel, gin, soap, caramel candy, parsley, canned apricot and cake. Taste begins with a spritzy fruitiness, peaches, pineapple and sour berries, sharply tingling and minerally carbonation (stronger than expected in view of the low sparkling), very subtle saltiness (much more subtle than in many American IPAs, luckily) and a fruity, almost lemony but still equally subtle sourishness. Medium-bodied, smooth maltiness follows, a little bit bready and nutty, but mostly pale malt sweetishness as in a pale lager; leafy and slightly peppery hops ensue and dominate the finish, bittering and drying, but not too complex and not too ’biting’; a trace of malt sweetishness creeps through. I guess this qualifies as a decent ’introduction IPA’ for those who are still unfamiliar with the style: it does have the dry-hopped aroma and hop bitterness one expects from it, but in a relatively gentle, restrained kind of way. Still, there are no obvious flaws here and though it may lack the complexity and ’in-your-faciness’ of many other IPAs, I find it quite well-balanced and enjoyable, like most of Brand’s beers - never truly outstanding, but decent and trustworthy. In any case I am glad Albert Heijn seems to specialize in IPAs nowadays, and since there are some Albert Heijn supermarkets in Belgium now, I can only applaud the fact that this may serve as an introduction of the Belgian palate to true IPAs instead of the many crappy new and opportunistic hoppy beers around here (exceptions aside). In this particular context, where the American craft beer influence is ’boomeranged’ back to the traditional Western European beer countries, I appreciate the fact that the classic breweries in our part of the world are gradually becoming acquainted with these ’new’ substyles.