Triporteur Haze
(has 2 batches)

17/08/2019 @home - 33cl bottle from Bierhalle Deconinck, Vichte. Hazy straw yellow, nice white head. Nose is grassy, citrus, hops bitterness. Taste is bit malts, bit spice, citrus, some grapefruit, nice bitter ending.

Everybody wants to have a piece of the NEIPA cake these days, and this is BOM's contribution, recently released under the Triporteur brand. Hop varieties are not specified - definitely not a good sign in this genre - but the label does state that it contains (apart from wheat and oatmeal) lactose, which effectively makes it qualify as a 'milkshake IPA' as well - a separate style category on this site... I guess brewer's intent - no mention of 'milkshake' but an explicit mention of 'New England IPA' should prevail here? Anyway: thick, very tightly and regularly 'papery' lacing, delicately structured, egg-white, coarse, stable head on an immediately equally clouded, 'egg yolk yellow' robe with warm orangey tinge and discreetly visible traces of sparkling here and there. Luscious aroma of lime flesh, wet marijuana, freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, bitter mandarin peel, crushed Szichuan pepper, herb cheese, mango, green thistles and other garden weeds, apricot jam, dough, minerals, touch of stale sweat-like dankness. Massively fruity onset - as befits the style - with sweet and sour impressions varying between lime, freshly cut red apple, mango, guava and starfruit, minerally carbonation effects but more or less remaining soft enough for the intended style, soft fluffy mouthfeel, gentle doughy malt sweetness (too?) quickly soaked in aromatic, but also relatively firmly bittering hoppiness: a retronasal wave of pink grapefruit, starfruit, mango and a touch of sweet onions, but also a peppery, 'powdery' bitterness on the root of the tongue, more robust than is typical for the style, lingering for quite a long time in a rooty, bit quinine-like manner; the powdery and aromatic effects of the hops keep prevailing, though. Well, this is a nice surprise: contrary to some earlier Belgian attempts, this is, all things considered, a credible NEIPA. Sure, it does not entirely show the refinement, exuberance and extreme finetuning of the masterworks in the style (as achieved by Hill Farmstead, Trillium, Tree House, Cloudwater and others) and, importantly, the end bitterness is perhaps too strong - and 'classically IPA-like' - but there is no denying that BOM has created a beer that indeed has the basic features of a NEIPA. If anything, for me personally, the fact that it maintains a somewhat higher carbonation and more bitter hoppiness than is custom for the style, even makes it more enjoyable... Triporteur has delivered very solid beers over the years but never in a style this 'exotic' - from a Belgian perspective, that is - so all the more praise is due to the BOMBrouwerij, from now on an unexpected producer of a fine juicy New England style IPA. Never saw this coming, to be honest.