33 cl. bottle @ home, bought @ W. van Schaik, Culemborg. Hazy dark golden with a white head. Yeasty fruity and hoppy aroma. Sweet taste with some hopbitterness. Typical hopped up Belgian blonde instead of an U.S. IPA but still tasty.

Extra hoppy blonde from a traditional Limburg brewery that did 'hoppy' before it was fashionable in Belgium, with their Bink Blond being a kind of forerunner of the hop forward movement that has swept the entire globe now. Thanks to Christine for the bottle! Medium thick, very regular, off-white, lightly lacing, moussy head slowly showing a few gaps here and there in the middle, resting atop an initially near-clear, deep and warm amberish hued orange blonde beer with strings of visible fizz; turns hazy and deeper amber with sediment, including some dark, dead yeast bits at the very bottom. Aroma of baked banana, warm toast, dried mandarin peel and fresh orange zest, peanuts, dried apricot, sweetclover, freshly grated ginger, fried tomatoes, marmelade, gin, hints of melting powder sugar, bread crumbs, cherry tree sap, honey, sugarloaf, dried apple mint leaves, pear peel, chicken stock cubes - smells like it is a bit past its prime, in 'IPA' terms at least. Sweet onset, lots of mandarin, baked banana and a dash of dried papaja, light sourish undercurrent and even a very subtle olive-like umami touch, residual sugariness nevertheless dominates and accompanies the rest of the palate, over a medium carbonated, slick but full, caramelly and lightly (pea)nutty maltiness, with sweet remaining the main factor yet acquiring a very soft toasty-bitterish edge towards the end. From the middle section onwards, this malt and sugar sweetness is drenched in a growing hop bitter force, with floral, mildly zesty and grapefruity notes retronasally as well as a resiny, tonic water-like, late but effective bitterness on the root of the tongue; some gin-like alcohol warmth takes over in the very end, but the caramelly and honeyish sugary sweetness goes down along with it. Vaguely reminiscent of Troubadour Magma and the like, mixing Belgian estery banana, honeyish, residual sugar sweetness and slick caramelly malt sweetness with a generous dosis of hop bitterness (seven different varieties in this case, though sadly the label fails to mention which ones), lingering in the back of the mouth in a very resinous, bitter herb-like way and drenched a bit in booze. This is a combination you'll love or hate, but generally speaking, this is a juicy, 'full' kind of beer, lacking a bit in refinement and being rather unaware of what IPA is all about, but within the "Belgian IPA" context (which one can regard either as a failure in trying to produce IPA, or as a compromise between Belgian and Anglo-Saxon brewing trends), this performs quite well, actually. Too bad the bottle was already too old: I'm assuming a younger one has more lively and refreshing orange aromas to offer, as is the case with Troubadour Magma, which this beer is quite similar to. Glad I finally had it but next time, I want to encounter this either from tap or from a young bottle.

Fruity white head stayed well on a still, honey coloured body - Looks great! Slightly hoppy on the nose but no Belgian Yeast aromas. Smooth & quite creamy. Soft on the palate. Tingles on the back. Dry. Bitter/Sweet on the palate with pith, grapefruit & lemon, with a long bitter aft.

Slightly hazy deep golden colour, average frothy off-white head, mostly diminishing, good lacing. Aroma pale malts, grainy, caramel, light orange, hay. Taste medium sweet and bitter, roasted malts, burnt caramel. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation, malty bittersweet aftertaste, burnt caramel, spicy notes, dry and astringent hopbitter finish, decent.

1st August 2016
Hazy orange - gold beer, tidy cream colour head. Palate is semi dry and has reasonable fine carbonation. Thin malts, light creamy sweetness. Strong banana esters sit alongside mild orangey hop. Little orange peel bitterness. Light finish. It’s okay but for me esters and hops are not always easy bedfellows.