8

Imported from untappd on 02-05-2020

6.8

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Last year's edition of this yearly series of wet-hopped Plukker beers, 75 cl bottle with cork and muselet (as usual) from De Hopduvel in Ghent. Thick and frothy, off-white, disparately lacing, irregular and eventually strongly thinning but nevertheless stable head on a misty, beautifully pure amber beer with deep orange hue, like a sunset, thin but fierce columns of sparkling rising up from the bottom of the glass (and sustaining the head). Aroma of raw carrot juice, old mandarin peel, soggy peanuts, tomato peel, field flowers, chewing gum, damp earth, pond water, vague banana accent, moist paprika powder, soggy rusk, dust, hints of plum and turnip. Fruity onset, estery but not too sweet, sourish note, lively carbed with a supple, smooth, streamlined mouthfeel; accents of peach, red apple and very light banana, carried along a trail of slick bready and lightly caramelly, bit soggy-peanutty malts, sweetish without being sweet and toasty without being bitter. Before the finishing stage, the intended 'wet' or green hoppiness shows up, with indeed a recognizable damp hop cones effect, providing a rooty, floral and earthy bitterness that matches well with the earthiness of the yeast that becomes more prominent in the end; bubblegummy, almost plaster-like effect as well, but that damp earth-like, leafy bitterness remains dominant, bombarded with clove- and almost vaguely mint-like phenols. An orange peel note shows up as well but in a dry, 'old' and 'wet' way. Soft, earthy, very Belgian ale as usual from De Plukker - on the one hand, one can argue again that their beers ought to be way less yeasty so as to better showcase the (home grown!) hops, but on the other hand, this kind of ales constitute Plukker's house style and I am perfectly fine with that. This is not an IPA, not intended as one, and should therefore not be judged as one either: this is a Belgian amber putting more emphasis on the hops simply because the brewer also happens to be a hop farmer. That feels kind of right, for me at least, so as with previous editions in this series, I feel very comfortable with an IPA-influenced hoppy Belgian amber ale like this, as it breathes a considerable degree of 'terroir' (as the culinary world would put it). Still - and this is purely from memory - I recall earlier versions as having a bit more 'punch' in the hop department, and therefore a bit more surprising, than this one, even taking into account the fact that the bottle I'm sampling here, one of only 4930 in existence, must be past its prime by now.

6.6

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Imported from my RateBeer account as De Plukker Single Green 2018 (by De Plukker):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 13/20, MyTotalScore: 3.3/5

26/XI/18 - 33cl bottle, shared @ home, BB: 3/V/21 - (2018-1729)

Clear deep orange to amber beer, small creamy irregular beige head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: lots of caramel malts, ripe banana, yeast, bit fruity, sweetish. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: malty, bitter, bit grassy, nice bitterness, some orange, bit of banana. Aftertaste: sweet, malty, grains, hint of orange peel, more banana.