Bon Chef

Can: Poured a murky straw yellow with a frothy white head. Aroma is spicy, hoppy, fruity, citrus. Taste is hops forward, light fruit, malty, startchy.

Can sample, Smallish head, light cloudy very pale orange, grass and onion, grassy bitterness, nice dunkiness, light to medium citrusy bitterness. Really nice and enjoyable

NEIPA by this familiar craft brewing project in Amsterdam; can from the Albert Heijn supermarket in Lokeren. Audibly crackling, off-white, uneven-bubbled, irregularly structured, plaster-lacing, slowly breaking and opening head on a misty yellow blonde beer with khaki tinge somewhere. Dank but also very fruity and quite sultry aroma of freshly cut ripe pineapple, passionfruit, papaya, armpit sweat, rambutan, guava, yuzu, lime flesh, fresh dough, honey, ripe pear, faint hints of onion, chalk and lemongrass pulp from a jar. Juicy onset, citrusy-fresh with lime, yuzu and mandarin associations, alongside mango, slight papaya and pear; quite lively carbonation for style but nevertheless maintaining a smooth, slightly creamy mouthfeel, perhaps a bit too slick for a NEIPA though. Doughy pale malt sweetish core with sharper cereally edges, soaked in very citrusy hoppiness, yuzu and lime returning, also bringing back sultry and tropical impressions of mango, pear and guava - but at the same time, a lemon zest-like bitterishness is deposited in the finish, with somewhat granular and powdery effect, prohibiting things from becoming too sweet, a plus in my book when it comes to New England style IPAs. Perhaps a tad too grainy and effervescent, but generally speaking, this is a fine NEIPA, ticking all the boxes of the style without aiming for immortality; the run-of-the-mill implementation of what Alchemist, Trillium, Tree House and Hill Farmstead created years ago, so a kind of basic, ready-to-use, introductory NEIPA for those not yet familiar with this overexposed style, I would say. I do appreciate the extra hop bitter aspect here, considering the many overly sweet fruit juice NEIPAs I had to endure in recent years, so have an extra point for that.

28/IX/22 - 33cl can from a Dutch supermarket (AH? Jumbo?), shared @ home, BB: 14/VII/23 (2022-1330)

Pretty cloudy blond to yellow beige beer, big aery white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: nice, very juicy, lots of tropical fruits, mango, some oranges, sweet impression. MF: ok carbon, medium to light body. Taste: what a disappointment! Such a nice smell in the glass, and then such a watery beer in the mouth... very malt forward flavour profile, a bit metallic, sweet touch, fruity notes, but overall rather bland. Aftertaste: gentle bitterness, a little more fruity, some tropical fruits in the back, covered behind a lot of malts, grains, hay, bitter touch, pretty metallic in the finish. Not per se a bad beer, but not great either. Too bad, cause it smelled really great. :(

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Blik 33cl. Juicy, zacht, fruitig, vrij hoppig, grassig, maltzoeten, heel licht pine. (30-7-2022).

(Draught at In De Wildeman, Amsterdam, 6 May 2022) Cloudy yellow colour with frothy, white head. Fruity, hoppy nose with lemon, passion-fruit, mango and white bread. Fruity, hoppy taste with notes of lemon, mango, passion-fruit and a mild citric bitterness. Medium body, with a certain sweetness. Tasty, fresh and juicy. Very nice.

Tap in The Hague. Poured a hazy golden colour with a short-lived, frothy white head. The aroma is grainy malt, citrus, stone fruits. The flavour is moderate to light bitter and sweet, with a fresh, crisp, light lemon juicy citrus, barnyard, light hop bitter palate. Easy drinking and refreshing.