Plato's Cave (Batch #1)
Brasserie du Brabant in Genappe - Baisy-Thy, Walloon Brabant, Belgium 🇧🇪
IPA - Imperial / Double Series Out of Production|
Score
6.93
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
Golden. Aroma and flavour both have lots of tropical fruit and piney hops. Also some orangey syrupy notes and citrus pith.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Sample @ Zythos’16, courtesy of and shared with the RB Belgian crew. Léger orangé, fin beige. Arôme est centré sur les agrumes, d’ailleurs le bouquet est enivrant avec un très bon rétro de pin et de résineux. Palais est très bien centré sur le houblon, une sorte de Plato Chariot plus facile à boire, le tout est sec, résineux et agrumes s’inspirant des US avec un fini tropical parfait, Simcoe, CHops? Une allégorie de la cave qui rendrait Platon assez fier de lui.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
16th April 2016
Hazy amber beer, big pale cream colour head. Paalte is light, fairly dry and has decent fine carbonation. Caramel malts, not that sweet. Floral bitterness in to orange peel and aniseed. Trace of berry fruits. Quite a floral bitter finish, bitterness lingers on. A bit caramel but okay.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5
One of the new Brabant beers - I am still surprised this guy found a new breath after years of silence, I remember visiting him ten years ago, when he had only a few very typically (but well-crafted) Wallonian ales in his range and now he is boldly embracing the international craft beer movement - kudos for that alone. From a 75 cl bottle with the same modest and (perhaps too) simple label style as his new tripel and his RIS. Loose, coarse, pale greyish white head dissolving quickly in spite of the hops, initially retaining loosely on the edge but eventually giving up altogether and almost completely vanishing; lightly hazy orangey amber colour with somewhat pinkish hue and vivid sparkling. ’Dank’ aroma, but clearly ’dirty Wallonian’ (saison-like) too, with hints of mouldy orange, hemp, some stale urine (old hops?), apple peel, decaying juniper berries, gin, overripe strawberry, ’dirty rubber’, some rubbing alcohol even, banana, dry hay, dried apricot, damp white pepper, mandarin peel, unripe mango, ’smoky’ papaja, toasted bread. Crisp fruity onset, soft basic gooseberry sourishness with peach and dried banana sweetishness, green olive-like umami flavor too; there are certain Belgian yeast effects, obviously, but in this case they do not overpower the hops, as is often the case in other Belgian IPAs. Carbonation is medium at first but quiets down further into the bottle. Thick but smooth malt body, a tad caramelly with a toasted, nutty edge as well as a light soapy wheat presence (I get nothing of the oats, by the way); all the while, an initial peppery hop bitterness buds and grows, leading to a long, ’green’ and resinous hoppy finish, spicy, leafy, earthy and dried citrus peel-like, with retronasal pepper and ’mouldy grapefruit peel’ aromas. Long-lasting earthy bitterness remains, with some warming, gin-like, but fortunately non-astringent alcohol. I am glad to read that this is only the first try-out of this recipe (and I applaud the brewer for being this open about it): this clearly needs more work, a lot more head formation and stability (which I am surprised is this limited in an IPA style beer!), more ’freshness’ in its hops profile and perhaps a tad more malt sweetness for balance; other than that, the nose is confronted with some pungent, almost chemical, rubbing alcohol-like solvents which distract from the rest and should be eliminated as much as possible (in fact sniffing the current aroma for too long causes a slight headache, as if I have been sniffing methylated spirits or something alike...); fortunately though, this off-flavour fades away halfway the bottle, making the aroma ever more pleasant. The flavor as such is decent, too, and I must admit I like this brewery for its boldness alone, so I’ll give this the benefit of the doubt for the time being, and try the second and third batches later to see if it has improved.
yespr (55607) reviewed Plato's Cave (Batch #1) from Brasserie du Brabant 9 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
From tap. Pours hazy orange with a small white head. Aroma is solid hoppy, peachy and grapefruity. Bitter, crisp hoppy and fruity. Pine to frapefruity dense hoppy. Bitter and dry far finish.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
@ BAB 2016. Thnx for sharing, everyone ! Pours unclear amber, small white head. SMell is bitter, aromatic, citrussy ( Orange peel ) Some sharp, almost boozy aspect . The collab between the boozy factor on one hand, and the fruityness on the other, gives it a bit medicinal taste.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
06/02/2016 - sample @ BAB shared by tderoeck, 77ships and kradel. Orange amber colour. Nose is bitter hops and herbal. Taste is harsh bitterness, herbal, fruit aspects hard to find. Much to bitter for my like bit hey, its not my cup off beer. It aint bad at all if you like bevat bitterness
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Draught White rim over coppery orange beer. Grapey hops, incisively yet delicate. Other exotic fruit as passion, lychee. Finish is a bit hayish. Dry-bitter, fresh hops’ flavour, going into a long-lasting aromatic hoppy finish. Medium bodied, very hopoily feel. Maybe not Imperial, but double enough - and likeable. The strength of this beer lies in its balance, which is just right. Moreover, one of the few Belgian brewers to use the right kind of hops.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Sampled draft @ Bierfestival Brugge 2016. Very dark amber with an off-white head. Nose is quite sweet, doughy, sugar, bread, vanilla, malty. The hop becomes apparent in the taste huge weird herbal profile with a sugary base, big weird herbal medicine, potpourri, low winter spices almost, anise, sugar, herbs, quite malty. Heavy on the bitterness, no real fruity hop character, instead lots of unusual herbal, medicinal, spice-like hop notes. Quite unusual, taste & body is a bit too yeasty. Rather malty body. Could be a bit drier for me with less yeast, a bit harsh but interesting, a bit halfway between usual & touch messy.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Trübes orangegoldenes Bier mit einer mittelgroßen weißen Schaumkrone. Geruch süß malzig, sehr hopfig, leicht grasig. Geschmack sehr hopfig, floral bitter, grüner Tee