8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle big thanks to Rich. It pours lightly hazy pale blonde with a decent fluffy white head. The aroma is fresh, straw, grassy, cracker, grain, weak lemon, melon, apple, pear and white bread. The taste is crisp, dry, minerality, snappy, grassy, straw, melon, pear, apple, fluffy sponge cake, floury bread, straw herbal, clean and fragrant with a dry finish. Medium body and moderate, fluffy carbonation. Bright and fresh.

7.4

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

(Bottle) Golden colour with big, frothy, white head. Malty, hoppy nose with notes of grass, herbs, bread, a touch of citrus, flowers and lots of fresh herbal, perfumy hops. Malty, hoppy taste with white bread, grass, herbs, flowers, dried apricots, a touch of yeast and a generous herbal, grassy bitterness in the finish. Medium body, with a slight sweetness. Loads of fresh hops. Very nice.

7.3

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle from Salling. Pours hazy orange with a big white head. Aromas of hops, wheaty sweet notes, esters, banana sweetness, citrus. Taste is citrussy, herbal, hoppy, grassy, citrussy, esters, wheat.

6

Backlog

7.1

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8.5

The 2015 vintage in this series, 75 cl bottle from Van Eetvelde, hopped with Northern Brewer and Hallertau Mittelfrüh. I always seem to stumble upon bottles in this series too late, whereas they are probably at best when consumed young - hopefully this one held out till now. Fairly thick and frothy, egg-white, densely moussy head leaving behind a thick ’board’ of papery lacing, on top of a hazy straw blonde beer with deeper ochre-ish tinge, completely cloudy and ’whiter’ (milky) with sediment added. Aroma is initially a bit ’skunked’ (mercaptans - this one clearly saw too much light, note the green colour of the bottle in this respect too), yet quickly gone and thus making way for more flattering impressions of fresh bitter herbs (wormwood), straw, green banana, garden weeds, raw ’witloof’, chicory root even, raw green cabbage (no DMS!), unripe apricot, old bread crust, jute, dry hay, bitter honey, dried camomile, horseradish, mustard seed, raw potato, coriander seed, hard pear, tonic water, minerals, perhaps a vague echo of bygone lemon zest, dandelion milk juice - and apart from what is perhaps reminiscent of wet cardboard, not the slightest sign of old age or oxidation. Crisp onset, bit estery, with hints of green banana (certainly no bubblegum isoamylacetate), unripe peach, green apple peel and gooseberry, sourish and dry with an only very briefly and subtly sweetish core, sharply and minerally carbonated, initially numbing a bit and making it hard to figure out the actual taste, coarsening an otherwise supple, lean, full body. Grainy middle with softer bready edges, over which this ’wry’ green fruitiness persists, gradually acquiring more and more influence from old spice-like phenols, yet nothing medicinal or band aid-like. Earthy bitter finish, some graininess and restrained fruitiness remaining but only as ornaments to a full-fledged, powerful hop bitterness filling the mouth, peppery, very leafy and very grassy with floral notes, a bit soapy even in the very end probably due to a subtle (but still redundant) dash of coriander; this spicy hop bitterness keeps dominating the back of the mouth and throat for a long time and has a profoundly ’resinous’, quinine- and tonic water-like feel to it, not unlike XX Bitter when I come to think of it, if not more so. Some juicy graininess seeps through, along with ’Belgian’ spicy phenols. It is, in all, the uncompromising, deep and thorough, drying, pungent but ’noble’ hop bitterness which lasts and lasts, leaving behind a very gin-like, ’bright garden green’, harsh and everlasting bitterness, like the underside of dried grapefruit peel. Alcohol remains completely out of sight - as it ought to be for a beer at near session strength. I missed out on a few of these Ranke Hop Harvest editions but compared with the ones I had, this one is a beer to be reckoned with: it has the general profile of that exceptional XX Bitter, probably the most bitter Belgian beer back in the nineties, but with a tad more finesse and elegance, though to me, the degree of uncompromising, ’green’ and even somewhat harsh hop bitterness is about the same between both. A very hop bitter beer indeed, this 2015 Hop Harvest, which probably explains why it is still standing so strong in early 2017 - reflecting the old and ’stern’ Euro noble hops’ preserving potency rather than the delicacy and fragility of those fancy New World hops, lovely as they may be. Thoroughly Belgian and, like XX Bitter, a bit ’British’ at the same time, this is close to the quintessence of this brewery: an aversion against sweetness, stubbornly turning its head towards bitter and dry. Probably the least ’accessible’ and therefore most uncompromising one I had in this series.

6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Keg at six deg... Very pale yellow.. Thin white lacing.. Dry fruits nose.. Light grassy fruit.. Dry hay fruit... Too bitter

7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

On draft at The Sovereign in Georgetown DC. Pours a hazy gold with an off white head. Minty bubblegum nose. Flavors of spices and and grapefruit rind. Bitter finish.

6.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Light bubblegum dust and some florals. Light pine bitterness. Golden hazy pour with good head and lacing. Tap at Sovereign thanks to mrchopin.

8.2

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8

Bottle @ Kvickly Middelfart. Pours hazy deep golden with a white creamy head. Yeast, cement, grass, concrete and straw. Dry and bitter finish. Bottled 10 months ago.. If I could only get stuff like this fresh! Nice

7.8

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7

De Ranke Hop Harvest 2015 Very light straw gold with a soft white head of foam. It has a very fresh aroma. It’s got a similar soft round carbonation to the Hop & Brett from Shiga Kogen but a more aggressive carbonation. The taste is intensely bready doughy light malts, spicy and herbal hop notes with a dry finish. Nice stuff.