XXX Bitter
Brouwerij De Ranke in Dottignies, Hainaut, Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgian Style - Blonde / Pale / Amber Regular|
Score
7.45
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XXX-Bitter is a variation on the existing XX-bitter, where we add an additional 50% more hops.
Taste: Full-bodied bitter beer. Despite its higher IBU-value, the large amount of aroma-hops makes this beer taste smoother than XX.
Taste: Full-bodied bitter beer. Despite its higher IBU-value, the large amount of aroma-hops makes this beer taste smoother than XX.
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8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 8
Vestjysk Vinter Vanvid januar 2014. Hazy pale golden with a small white head. Herbal hoppy aroma with fruity notes and a hint of spice. Dry, spicy and herbal hoppy flavour with a grassy hint. A pleasant, very bitter finish and long hoppy aftertaste
Tried
on 18 Jan 2014
at 15:32
7.8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7
Bottle @ Fynsk Brunsviger er kommet til Ulfborg for at blive , som streger i dine hvide underbukser. Day 2. Pours slight unclear yellow with a egg white head. Mild yeast and tons of grassy hops. Dry and crisp. Lasting bitter finish. Nice and clean.
Tried
from Bottle
on 18 Jan 2014
at 15:31
8.4/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8.5
750mL bottle drunk 12/31/13, best before 2/15/18.
Thick, pillowy, creamy, white head is exceptionally well-retained and sits atop a bright blonde, well-carbonated body.
Nose smells of fragrant hops, grassy and herbal. Definitely could not differentiate this from a fresh xx, but it smells every bit as good. Clean yeast provides only light background esters, mostly drowned out by the hops. Some dry biscuity malt undertones as well.
The flavor departs a little more than the aroma, from the regular version. Right away I note more dryness and bitterness, though of course, it’s all relative to how fresh a bottle of XX youre comparing it to, not to mention this bottle is already 10 months old. Anyways, classy and elegant, with very little in the belgian character and closer to a delicious, hoppy, american golden ale. Boy is this stuff dry too. Perhaps, dare I say, too dry to balance the resinous hop assault? Powerful stuff and perhaps a bit fatiguing by the end. As much as I appreciate how clean the yeast profile is, the comparison to Taras Boulbas (which I feel sets the gold standard for these types of beers) leaves this one wanting a bit in the Belgian character. Of course, that’s just personal preference and this is a terrific beer in its own right.
Thick, pillowy, creamy, white head is exceptionally well-retained and sits atop a bright blonde, well-carbonated body.
Nose smells of fragrant hops, grassy and herbal. Definitely could not differentiate this from a fresh xx, but it smells every bit as good. Clean yeast provides only light background esters, mostly drowned out by the hops. Some dry biscuity malt undertones as well.
The flavor departs a little more than the aroma, from the regular version. Right away I note more dryness and bitterness, though of course, it’s all relative to how fresh a bottle of XX youre comparing it to, not to mention this bottle is already 10 months old. Anyways, classy and elegant, with very little in the belgian character and closer to a delicious, hoppy, american golden ale. Boy is this stuff dry too. Perhaps, dare I say, too dry to balance the resinous hop assault? Powerful stuff and perhaps a bit fatiguing by the end. As much as I appreciate how clean the yeast profile is, the comparison to Taras Boulbas (which I feel sets the gold standard for these types of beers) leaves this one wanting a bit in the Belgian character. Of course, that’s just personal preference and this is a terrific beer in its own right.
Tried
from Bottle
on 01 Jan 2014
at 16:50
6.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6
Refrigerated 75 cl green bottle expiration in 2018 poured into a tulip. Pours hazy bright golden with big bright white head. Aroma is yeasty with a hint of skunk, medium body, medium carbonation, and thick big bubble lacing. Taste is yeasty, some herbal hops, and dry finish. Not my thing and expected more based on rating.
Tried
from Bottle
on 28 Dec 2013
at 08:37
8.3/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 9
Bottle from Bier Tempel. Austere, fragrant noble hop nose, grass and light citrus, with bready, biscuity malts in the back somewhere. Lovely, glowing golden, clear, with a high, fine, pillowy head. Very bitter hop flavor, bready malts, probably more than the original, or feel like it, with decent hop flavor and huge bitterness. Some lemon, hay. Not terribly balanced, but tasty and crisp. Awesome hops. The more times I drink this, the more impressive it gets.
Tried
from Bottle
on 23 Sep 2013
at 10:34
9.5/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 10
Flavor 9
Texture 10
Overall 9
75 cl. bottle sampled @ GBF 2013. With 3 X’s I was expecting a totally brutal hop onslaught esp. considering just how hardcore hop harvest beers can be when had fresh. Instead I got a more balanced, rounder and frankly even better version of the already pretty great XX. Hazy orange with a white head. Smell is sweet peaches, oranges, white bread yeast, fruity, very round with small grassy hop flourishes, white pepper,… Taste is bubblegum, bitter peach, slight grass and flora hops, light caramel, touch white bread, hops, pepper, touch citrus, cloves. Full bubblegum. Really good but unfortunately for the USA but that is also probably why this one is so good. Thx! to the RB Crew for sharing.
Tried
from Bottle
on 18 Aug 2013
at 05:53
7.2/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Slighlty hazy golden colour, white head. Aroma of hops, Belgian yeast, bubble gum and cloves. Bitter hoppy flavour, European hops, sweet malt touch, light resin. Lingering hop bitter flavour, resin and floral notes.
(From 75cL bottle @ ZZT-ish VIII / BBT I. Thanks for sharing, Countbeer!)
(From 75cL bottle @ ZZT-ish VIII / BBT I. Thanks for sharing, Countbeer!)
Tried
from Bottle
on 16 Aug 2013
at 15:29
7.3/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7
Imported from my RateBeer account as De Ranke XXX Bitter (by Brouwerij De Ranke):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 14/20, MyTotalScore: 3.6/5
14/VIII/13 - 75cl bottle @ Internationaal Streekbierenfestival 2013 (Zwevegem) - BB: n/a (2013-771) Thanks to Domien for sharing today's beers!
Clear light blond beer, big fizzy aery head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: bit soapy first, floral, citrus and agrum fruits, grapefruit, sweet summer fruits, little exotic. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: pretty bitter start, grassy hops, citrus, very dry, apple skin. Aftertaste: bitter, almost medicinal, bit soapy, citrus, grassy, very bitter (for a Belgian brew, that is ;-).
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 8/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 14/20, MyTotalScore: 3.6/5
14/VIII/13 - 75cl bottle @ Internationaal Streekbierenfestival 2013 (Zwevegem) - BB: n/a (2013-771) Thanks to Domien for sharing today's beers!
Clear light blond beer, big fizzy aery head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: bit soapy first, floral, citrus and agrum fruits, grapefruit, sweet summer fruits, little exotic. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: pretty bitter start, grassy hops, citrus, very dry, apple skin. Aftertaste: bitter, almost medicinal, bit soapy, citrus, grassy, very bitter (for a Belgian brew, that is ;-).
Tried
from Bottle
on 14 Aug 2013
at 11:09