Baptist IPA

Another expansion of the Baptist brand by Van Steenberge, intended as an IPA. I do not trust this brewery one bit so this is probably an altered alias of an existing recipe again and I do not expect this to meet my expectations of IPA either, but let's give it a shot. Very thick and foamy, egg-white, very strongly cobweb-lacing (as in actual cobwebs in this case), very mousy, very stable head on a clear, pale orange-hued peachy 'old gold' beer with disparate strings of sparkling. Aroma of bubblegum, coriander seed, halfripe banana, white bread, cold camomile tea, plastic, raw white cabbage, paprika somewhere, washing powder, black radish peel, unripe green pear, dry earth, clove - but none of that lovely colourful New World hoppiness in any form or shape. Sweet onset, very bubblegummy with hints of halfripe banana, green pear and even raw cucumber somewhere, sharply carbonated with very minerally and souring effect; rounded, slick body, very cereally and even grainy, as in a pale lager (is this based on Sparta Pils?). Metallic and minerally notes, as well as this strong and very annoying 'bubblegumminess', linger alongside a dash of soapy coriander seed towards a crude, leafy, rooty bitter finish, skipping all of the lovely retronasal aromas that actually make people drink IPA; this bitterness lasts for a while, but so do this horrible soapiness and bubblegum effect. Green-grassy in the end, bitter in a rather primitive way: this is, as expected, not an IPA at all - if anything, I guess one could classify this as a Belgian bitter blonde, but a crude, inelegant and very blunt one. Unpleasant, with a kind of plastic-like chemical note lagging behind - I was unable to completely finish this one, which obviously means low scoring. I would not be surprised if this is just plain old Sparta Pils with (a lot of) extra hop bitterness - and even if it is not, I am probably not too far removed from the truth. We have seen a decline in the commercial 'drive' and influence of family brewers - see the takeovers of e.g. Palm, Bosteels and De Koninck in recent years - but if this particular one in Ertvelde north of Ghent would be taken over by some multinational and stripped of its endless series of aliases and near-aliases, I would probably be among the first to cynically applaud it. Another traditional Belgian family brewery trying to cash in on the craft beer hype, and painfully faltering - this is, to quote the great Tim Webb, another silly old uncle trying to make a hip dance move at his young niece's wedding and miserably failing at the job. Fooling the audience by tricking them into thinking that a more bitter version of whatever plain Belgian beer is automatically an IPA should be punishable by law.

Fles 33cl thuis. Bitter, fruitig, licht droog, kruidig, yeasty, maltig, licht scherpig. (2-8-2020).

Golden colour with big fluffy head. Aroma and flavour have some dusty Belgian yeast. Very light fruity lime zest notes.

Thuis uit een flesje. Licht troebel. Oranje, gouden kleur, goed roomwit schuim. Lichte gistgeur. Smaak is zacht, licht bitter, en prima ook licht bittere nasmaak.

33cl bottle: BB 4th Apr 2021. Bought and drank in the Bier Paleis, Brugge on 3rd Feb 2020. Light haze to the golden body, sediment left the bottle, but not all of it. Decent white crown of foam for a head. Aroma held some yeasty, grainy notes with a hint of citrus and pine, not huge nose, subtle is the word. The taste was also fairly subtle for a Belgian IPA, nice blend of hops and malts but nothing to blow your socks off. It's just an easy drinking IPA with no outstanding features or flavours, pleasant though!

33cl bottle from Beerwulf webshop. F: big, white, good retention. C: gold, almost clear. A: malty, vaguely fruity, light citrus, herbal. T: medium malty base, some citrus, pine touch, herbal bitterness, this is something almost like commercial IPA obviously not for the style but according to my expectation for this brewery, nothing really good.

Imported from my RateBeer account as Van Steenberge Baptist IPA (by Brouwerij Van Steenberge):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 5/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 10/20, MyTotalScore: 2.7/5

11/VIII/19 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ George's Remembrance Mussels Dinner , BB: 4/IV/21 - (2019-1206) Did they actually manage to bottle this and then keep it off the (Belgian) market for 3 to 4 months?

Clear blond to orange beer, big creamy solid white head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: bit fruity, spicy, ripe melons, some banana, metallic, floral, very yeasty. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: lots of banana, soft bitterness, yeasty, sugary, metallic, more banana. Aftertaste: unpleasant bitterness, yeast, bit sweetish, medicinal, coriander, by no means could you classify this as an IPA.