Bruxelles Arrive

Huge thanks to Erzengel for sharing! Bottle looks interesting. Beer in the glass zippy, nice head. Sourish hoppy aroma. Starts intense hoppy, fruity notes of lemon, some grapefruit. Not too sour. Fresh hoppy background. Finish well balanced. Not bad.

Many thanks to Beerhunter111. Fruity nose. The beer starts mild and sourish. Fruity and not too deep, fruity sourish. Easy to drink, moderate fruity sourish in the end.

'Sour IPA', which is basically little more than a commercial term for a hoppy kettle sour (with 'IPA' on the label typically generating better sales), is always a bit of a challenge: traditional sour beer types of whatever kind are never outspokenly hoppy, on the contrary even, so there is no real tradition of experience behind them and the flavours for me need to be just right; let's see if this attempt, created in one of France's many new microbreweries (this one in the greater Paris region) with the help of Belgium's NovaBirra, lives up to that. Mousy, rather irregular, off-white, quite large-bubbled and quickly opening head, initially edge-retaining thanks to a very 'stormy' sparkling effect rushing through the beer like in a glass of champagne, but when this starts to die out, the head is gone too; warm, near-amberish-tinged, bit 'dirty-brownish' orange blonde robe. Aroma of kumquat, persimmon, freshly cut radish, old orange juice, ship's biscuit, pond water, wild apples, hints of floor polish, unsugared rosehip tea, dried sage, capers from a jar, oxidized old white wine, cumin cheese rind, mud. Crisp, sour-fruity onset, lime juice mingled with persimmon, pomelo and sour grape notes with a side effect of green olives, even a dash of capers faraway in the background; initially lively carbonation, softening later on, but rainwater-ish minerally effects seem to come from the brewing water itself this time. Supple, albeit somewhat thin cereally and dry-cracker-like maltiness with a slight metallic edge, continuing to be gently dried by lactic tartness, which nowhere becomes harshly puckering. The hoppiness does open itself in the finish, but more in a tea-ish, old dried herb-, rosehip- and bitter fruit peel-like way than in the bright citrusy way I would like to have seen, as that would have matched well with the general sourness and fruitiness of the beer. Hop bitterness lingers in the end alongside the lactic sourness, but in an earthy, somewhat 'dull' and 'old' way, even a tad cheesy in the end. At less than four months of age, this should not be the case yet, so I'm guessing this is the beer itself; in fact, I think this beer would have been better if it had been kept just a sour, without the hoppiness trying to establish IPA associations. Nonetheless, it does show some complexity and is certainly not unpleasant to drink, so why not give a decent score - France is, generally quite silently perhaps, working hard on the expansion of craft beer within its traditionally wine-dominated borders, so if you told me ten years ago that something like this was going to be brewed in the outskirts of their proud capital, I probably would not even have believed it.

33cl bottle. A almost clear yellow golden beer with a white head. Aroma of sour lime, grapefruit, moderate bitterness. Taste of tart lime fruits, pale malt, zest, grapes.

hazy golden colour, medium sized dense off-white head; aroma of lemony, orange, wine cellary, earthy and slight peachy notes; taste is dominated by acidic sourness with lemony, slight orange, tropical fruity, as well as acidic white wine notes; not bad at all!

Bottled 330ml (Beergium)
A bit hazy orange colour, small white head. Sour, hoppy aroma. Light to medium-bodied. Mix of sourness and hops, some spiceyness. Quite typical kettle-soured sour IPA.

Sample draught @ SWAFFF! 2019 Brussels Craft Beer Festival (1st day) shared with BE RB crew and other gentle people there. F: medium, egg-white, long lasting. C: gold, light hazy. A: light sour mellow fruity, peach, brett touch, basement, mineral water source. T: medium malty base, orange, spicy, mellow fruity, brett, bit caramel, medium carbonation, quite nice, enjoyed.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Les Brasseurs du Grand Paris / NovaBirra Bruxelles Arrive (by Brasserie du Grand Paris (Les Brasseurs du Grand Paris)):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.3/5

18/V/19 - on tap @ SWAFFF (Brussels), BB: n/a - (2019-760) Thanks to the Belgian Ratebeer crew and the Antwerp beer geeks for sharing today's beers!
Clear orange beer, creamy dense off-white head, little stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: dirty, bit fruity, orange peel, infected, urinals. MF: ok carbon, medium to light body. Taste: pretty sourish start, fruity, some pineapple, pretty bitter. Aftertaste: dry, bit metallic, bitter, acidic, some grapefruit, not bad, not great either.

Bouteille 33cl de Malt Attacks, BB 12/2019, lot# 20190227.2 Dorée, col blanc qui retombe très rapidement voire trop rapidement. Arôme offre un bouquet plaisant houblonné tirant sur les agrumes, et un léger rétro rappelant le fruit de la passion avec des pointes plus centrées sur les agrumes. Le côté 'sour' est plutôt discret. Palais IPA est bien présent, l'effet sour reste correct sans jamais devenir trop dominant, ici aussi je retrouve un effet fruit de la passion. Amarillo semble ajouté un peu d'acidité et amertume pour le côté citronné.