F: big, frothy, average retention. C: dark, gold. A: lemon, orange, tangerine, tropical fruits, mango, pineapple, biscuit. T: malt, orange, fresh tangerine, tropical fruits, peach, hint of mint, medium body, good carbonation, good balanced and refreshing IPA for a reasonable price, BB: 30/09/2016 and would have a better rate if fresh, 0,33l bottle from Delhaize in Antwerpen.

Sampled from bottle @ Tim needs to get rid of his ticks tasting. Slightly unclear orange golden color, medium to full sized rough white to off-white head. Smell and taste malts, lightly hops, lightly floral, quite floral with a hint of blossom. Soft bitter finish, light mouthfeel, a bit fizzy carbonation. Not bad at all, quite nice!

At de kelk, thnx dad! Pours clear blonde, ok white head. Smell is hoppy, in touch with the malts, Taste is bitter, grainy, hoparoma, citrussy. . Nice!

Medium to good, just yellowish head over veiled orange-amber beer. Very fruity, grapey nose, overwhelming C-hops; hopoils and -resins. Mandarine/tangerine and -peel. Again wry-ish, resiny hopoils, citrus, citruspeel, markedly mandarine and mandarinepeelflavours, as well as some bitterish muscatgrapes. Not overly bitter, but fragrant with a bitter bite, underneath fruity sugars lurking. Spritzy carbonation, refreshing and yet quit dry, even a shadow of astringency. Stable head gives some creaminess too. 1) This is truly a good one 2) It is made in Belgium, so the caption Bière Belge Spéciale cannot be faulted. 3) But whatever one might call it, this IS an IPA pure USA!

Every hobby (or even professional) brewer in Belgium is or should be familiar with Brouwland, the largest shop in the country to sell brewing materials; this beer apparently is the winner of a hobby brewing contest they organized. Bought it at a Delhaize supermarket today and apparently it was so new that it hadn’t even been price tagged properly so the cashier had to call for someone to go and check the price. Pours a cloudy orange blonde with darkish bits of dead yeast at the bottom of the glass, under a creamy, off-white, sticky, not very thick yet stable head. Aroma is citrus and citrus again; powerfully dry-hopped like a West Coast IPA, which it is clearly based upon, hints of grapefruit and lime peel, tonic water, bitter honey, dried apricot, vanilla, hemp, white bread, chicken soup, sundried tomatoes, apple peel, lavender, gin. Taste of apple and ripe peach at first, sharp and minerally carbonation, sweetish but not sugary, smooth, immediately refreshing on a bready and caramelly malt backbone, yeasty, somewhat powdery mouthfeel, with a refreshing sourish, lemony touch and a long, drying finish of sticky, very citrussy, aromatic green hops (obvious dry-hopping), bitter and lingering for a long time, along with some remaining caramelly maltiness and some yeastiness, very thirst-quenching. What a great discovery: I remember when I just started becoming interested in beer, IPA was something exotic and totally unavailable on the Belgian market; nowadays IPA-style beers are for sale in supermarkets. I must admit I’m a bit of a hophead and I cannot but applaud the fact that hops are currently experiencing their heydays in Belgian beer culture. If Ratebeer, like Beeradvocate, would acknowledge something like ’Belgian IPA’, this would surely be one of them - and a good one at that. In fresh condition, that is: a half year old sample had already lost a considerable amount of its aroma, body and flavour, even more so than expected from the style.