Grand Hops (2017) - Mistral
Brouwerij Corsendonk in Turnhout, Antwerp, Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgian Style - Blonde / Pale / Amber Series Out of Production|
Score
6.49
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Bottle from Speciaalbierpakket. Aroma is malt, ’green’ hops, foral, bubblegum, touch of citrus, light soapy with some sugary notes. Flavour is medium sweet and moderate to medium bitter. Body is medium. Pretty hoppy, the ’green’ hops have that floral bubblegum thing going on. Lacks some dryness though with a pretty bold sweetness. Okay beer.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle at Belgian Brasserie Henri, Budapest. Poured a crystal clear yellow golden colour with a lasting frothy white head and lots of champagne bubbles. The aroma is toffee caramel, yeast, light alcohol. The flavour is over moderate bitter, with a crisp, dry, yeasty, toffee, boozy alcohol bitter palate. Medium bodied with lively carbonation.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
Grand Hops...grand hops...cette version 2023 ne m'a pas réellement subjugué. Si on retrouve les bases d'une bonne bière belge avec notamment un alcool bien présent, la structure est déséquilibrée notamment par une acidité trop présente. Le visuel est sur un blond limpide avec une fine effervescence moyennement soutenue et une mousse blanche de 3 mm. Le nez est sur les céréales, le citron, la coriandre et de légères herbes. En bouche, si l'ensemble est frais et aérien, c'est une sensation brouillonne qui reste. Si l'alcool, à 6,9 % a du tempérament, l'acidité vient quelque peu brouiller tout cela. Cela laisse une impression étrange de ne pas savoir où l'on est.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Unclear, golden colored, medium white frothy head, nice lasting. Aroma is of malt, some caramel, biscuity aroma, floral and herbal hops, but not fresh, light yeasty spiciness. Taste is medium sweet malt and caramel, floral and herbal hops medium-light aroma but old, light+ bitterness, light butter, dryish. Medium bodied, average carbonation, oily. Not the freshest sample unfortunately.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Bouteille: Golden, hazy,, medium-sized creamy white head, fruity (belgian) yeast, medical hops and traces of sweet pale malt in the bitter-sweet nose; moderate bitter-sweet flavour, medium bodied and pretty soft; dryish and lingering bitter-sweet finish with medical (reads metallic) hops and some warming alcoholism in the aftertaste. Surely better than expected...
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6
33cl bottle from Alsem. Medium creamy white head. Hazy golden pour. Light bitterness.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
One of those more recent additions to the old Corsendonck range, made with Mistral d'Alsace noble hops. Inches thick, egg-white, very regularly edged, cobweb-lacing head on a clear pure golden blonde beer with vague khaki tinge and lively sparkling. Aroma of dried field flowers, freshly cut apple, white bread dough, moist white pepper, plaster, cider, banana, wet grass, flour, soapy coriander seed, pear, green melon, honey, sugared lemon juice. Apple and pear fruitiness in the onset with a banana edge, a little bit bubblegummy, light sourish accent with fizzy carbonation. Smooth mouthfeel, sweetish 'white bready' maltiness with some residual white sugariness on top, honeyish, leading to a softly spicy finish with some mild coriander seed effects and a floral and grassy hoppiness providing gentle, very lightly peppery and resinous bitterishness - but it is the malt and residual sugary sweetness that keeps firmly in place. Better than expected and rather 'natural', but the key issue here is that a beer sold as "Grand Hops" turns out to be neither grand, nor hoppy. I can imagine lots of consumers, geeky and less geeky, will expect a modern hop-forward beer so don't be fooled: this is just another easygoing, sweetish, straightforward Belgian style blonde.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
7 3 7 3 14 Bottle shared at THT May (My leaving The Hague edition). Hazy golden with a white head. Aroma of citrus, light fruity hops, cardboard, herbal hops and light malt. Flavour is moderate sweet and bitter. Medium bodied with light carbonation.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
THT May - Kermis Leaving. Shared from bottle. Clear golden with white head. Sweet malts, cardboard, hops, minty herbal essence, dried tropical fruits. Moderate sweet and bitter. Medium body and soft carbonation. --- Beer merged from original tick of Grand Hops Edition 2017 on 06 May 2018 at 00:03 - Score: 5