La Brooklynette / La Gnomette Part II

One-off IPA brewed in collaboration with Brooklyn Brewery, with no less than eight American and English hop varieties, of which five were used for dry-hopping. An IPA from a time when the style was only just beginning to get a foothold among Belgian micro breweries, with a fruity and malt sweetish onset quickly evolving in a dry, herbal and leafy, citrussy, very complex, long hop bitterness. Wonderful experiment, too bad it hasn’t been continued.

Had this last night at Boston’s Belgian Beer Fest- the brewer himself pulled it from the tap and told me all about his collaboration - it was loud, and it was hard for me to understand his accent, so I though it was the Houblon at first, but as he spoke, and I sipped, I knew it was a totally different animal - I don’t much care for Brooklyn Blast, but that Chouffe yeast has worked magic on this recipe - where the blast is overly carbonated and abrasive, the gnomette has a more natural, soft carbonation - the hop profile seems much more balanced, and the citrus character such a high hop profile provides mingles well with the fruity esters produced by the belgian yeast - this was one of the better beers at the fest - Brooklyn will be brewing this recipe soon, with some variations, and releasing it as Cuvee D’Achouffe - hopefully it will be as good.

Draught Good orangey tinted head, leaving textbook lace, over fully hazy orange-ochre beer. Extremely flowery, hoppy nose - this is Garrett and either he’s used masses of superb Europe hops, or a good deal of American ones. Dry and perfumey at the same time. Stunning!. Again very flowery taste, perfumey flavours, with dry, definitely USA-style hops, citrussy, resiny,.. WOW! No new aftertaste, but long lasting flavours. Well-bodied, grist slickness, resiny afterthought, lingering after every sip. Absolutely SUPERB. This is the final accomodation of America to Belgian beer. Love it!