Many thanks to Rian. Nice sweetish round, yellow fruit, fresh, smooth. Nice fresh aftertaste, probably too much mint. The minty hops with the sweetish body last long in the aftertaste. Strange.

33 cl bottle. Pours hazy orange with a huge off white head. Aroma is solid hoppy. Grapefruity and pine hoppy. Bitter, solid fruity and grapefruity. Crisp hoppy, bitter and smooth fruity finish.

18h April 2015
Hazy gold beer, decent pale cream colour head. Palate is airy and semi dry. Very fine carbonation. Smooth malts, but dry, some creamy sweetness. Light spice. Orange peel and resinous pine. Mild brandysih alcohol and then a trace of lemon. Light dry finish. Obviously strong but fairly drinkable.

Pours unclear blonde, good and steady white foam. Smell is sharp bitter, with a clean malty undertone that has gotten rid of all sweetness. Taste is bit malty, sharp bitter. Rather uncomplex... Some hoparoma even ( very hidden, bit citrussy tones ) I prefer other beers by them, yet this doesnt suck. Alcohol is hidden, but so is complexity and intensity for this kind of ABV.

330 ml. bottle @ ‘t Antwaerps Bierhuiske. A high ABV take on the classic De La Senne blond which is interesting but doesn’t really work. This is one takes place on De La Senne turf with no clear mention of Tocalmatto on the label which carries the usual wonderful De La Senne artwork. Pours hazy orange, big white bubbles and some minor lacing. Nose is sweetish, bit soapy and heavy on esters, bitter mainland EU hops play an equal share in the bitterness profile together with bitter esters which an interesting sweetness creeps up in the back, there is some light booze. Taste is heavy on bitter esters with a distinct De La Senne feel to it but much thicker, it is thick compared to most beers of this ABV but does feel like a much thicker version of a regular De La Senne blond, touch soap sweetness with some green apple esters, there are hops, bitter grass flavoured ones which create the bitterness together with the esters, sweetness takes on an almost honey like quality but the bitterness remains clearly upfront and the finish has some phenolic alcohol qualities to it. De La Senne has clearly gotten better at the BE blond high ABV game compared to the first version of Jambe-de-Bois or when you compare the old and the new Jambe-de-Bois but they aren’t still onpar with the sheer brilliance of their low ABV game. This is good but you cannot help feeling that while it is good it just isn’t as good as their lower ABV beers.

Collaboration brew between de la Senne and Toccalmatto, tasted at Nuetnigenough’s pop-up at ACBF. Stable, sticky, thick, frothy, egg-white head, colour a murky, brownish golden blonde. Very earthy and leafy hops aroma, dry-hopped, a bit dusty, hemp, abbey cheese, orange peel, weeds and nettles, jute, toasted bread, dried apricot, grapefruit. Dried fruity taste, subdued sweetness, juicy with a medium carbonation effect, yeasty, light cheesy and salty touch, nutty malts in the back, early and strong hop bitterness, very ’deep’ and earthy, a bit ’English’ in style, long and dry, peppery, tonic water-like, with a remainder of honeyish malt sweetishness piercing through. Qualifies as a ’Belgian IPA’ to me, and I do think this style deserves recognition, considering the ’hops forward’ tendency in Belgian beer culture nowadays.

07/03/2015 sample of 33cl bottle @ Nuetnigenough popup @ ACBF 2015. Clearly de la Senne in Aroma & taste. Aroma is sweetness, fruity hops. Taste : fruity, sweet, bitterness in the end. Alcohol is hidden.