One of the two new Four Aces beers by Het Nest, aiming at more ’international’ (or rather: Anglo-Saxon) beer styles than the rest of their range so far. Thick but regular, frothy, beige-ish egg-white, stable head leaving behind a pattern of cobweb-like lacing on top of a very dark but fully translucent, deep bronze beer with wine red tinge, almost clear initially but misty and more brownish with sediment. Attractive, perfumey and frankly mouthwatering aroma of pink grapefruit flesh, roasted pine nuts, butterscotch, basil leaves, liquorish candy, orange zest, dried apricot, cashew nuts, freshly cut stinging nettles, toasted brown bread, lime blossoms, damp earth, fried porcini, brown sugar-glazed beetroot, subtle hints of dried lavender, camomile, honey, roasted pork. Fruity but ’clean’ onset of dried plums, red apple and vague baked banana sweetness surrounded by blackcurrant sourishness and a very light hint of dried mushroom-like umami, medium carbonated with lots of undisturbing minerally side notes, supple and oily mouthfeel, slick and medium in thickness. Very juicy from the start, appetizing, with this juiciness continuing over a backbone of full-fledged nuttiness with a softer caramelly edge, gaining light toasted bitterishness in the end just before the hops come in - adding not just a spicy, leafy bitterness, almost wormwood-like in the end but not too harshly so, but also a lovely aromatic quality of dried citrus peel, exotic pepper and even very light pine resin. The wormwood- and eventually almost quinine-like, ’deep’ bitterness dominates the throat, though quite a lot of this lovely juicy maltiness and traces of the initial fruit sweetness glide through; alcohol remains all but unnoticeable, though a certain ’warmth’ is distinguishable in the end. I love BIPAs and I honestly did not expect too much of this: Het Nest is ambitious enough and technically very accomplished, but so far they have excelled in mostly classical Belgian styles, having created new highlights in the old tripel and quadrupel styles. Now they seem to be turning their attention to the international trend towards hop-forward Anglo-Saxon style variations and this black IPA (or Cascadian dark ale) is a very credible, appetizing and highly drinkable example of this new approach. This beer has the elegant hop fragrance of any good BIPA, carries enough dark maltiness to support it, and finds a gracious balance between the two without being disturbed too much by irrelevant Belgian yeast effects - and this is exactly how a BIPA should be done regardless of where it is brewed. Belgian black IPA (not meant as a style concept here) started off with Senne’s Brusseleir and Troubadour Westkust several years ago, two excellent beers I still like to enjoy every now and then, but both these early examples tilted more to the malty side than to the hoppy side; then came BBP’s Dark Sister as an accessible intermediate and now Het Nest is probably among the first to reach the stage of a clean, uncompromizing, deliciously balanced, highly aromatic BIPA the way it should be done. This far exceeds my expectations - kudos to Het Nest and hopefully many more Belgian breweries of sufficiently high technical standards will follow this beautiful example.

Pours very dark, caramelly brown. OK white head. Smell is roasty, bit bitter. Taste is roasty, aromatic, some chocolate notes. bitterness, with a fresh, ’green’ aspect at the end. Very decent MF and vehry nice carbo ( an almost unique combo in the Belgian beerscene ) rather creamy. Very nice. One of the better BIPA’s for sure. All i miss is a touch more hoparoma, but at least this is one of those rare occasions where you can taste both hops and black malts. I like it !