Fles 33cl thuis. Bitter, chocola, koffie, hop (Northern brewer, Green bullit, Vic secret, Warrior, Pacific jade), wat dun. (10-2017).

Geproefd bij de stadsbrouwerij te Eindhoven. Het is een donker bruin bier met een dunne schuimkraag. In de geur komt koffie naar voren. De smaak is gebrand, koffie en chocolade.

33cl bottle courtesy of and shared with Kermis. Medium creamy off white head. Hazy deep amber pour. Nice bitterness and some chocolate.

Bottle shared. Very hazy reddish brown with a thick light tan head. Aroma of roasty malts, caramel and grassy notes. Flavour is light sweet and really heavy bitter with a long super bitter finish. Above light bodied with soft carbonation. [12-09-2016]

At Ghent Beer Festival. Pours hazy dark brown/beige with a medium off-white head. The aroma contains roasted malts, hops, (cold) coffee, caramel and toast. It tastes heavy bitter leading to a hoppy dry finish. Light body, moderate carbonation. Despite the 3,5% the flavour is pronounced.

Sample @ Lambic and Sour Ale Sunday, Vichte. Dark brown/black colour, dark foam. Lots of coffee, roasted malts, American hops. Lots of flavour for only 3.5%. Nice!

At GBF. Collab of several Dutch craft brewers and John Versyck’s Pomphuizeke in Ghent. Moussy, pale greyish beige, more or less stable head, almost clear deep mahogany bronze-brown robe. Lush and very attractive aroma of dried grapefruit peel, green olive, hay, beef stock accent, hazelnuts, soggy black peppercorns, toast, dried fig. Light fruitiness in the onset, crisp, sweetish with a dim sourish hint and a meaty umami accent somewhere, supple body, slick, with a nutty and toasted malt middle, bittersweet, the bitter factor of which is eventually accentuated by a long, resinous, grapefruity and peppery, aromatic hop bitter finish. I have been wondering for a while why ISAs are always blonde - US craft brewers are already experimenting with black IPAs at session level, but why take it that far and not just try a brown equivalent first? And now that I come to think of it: we have red IPAs and black IPAs, but I’ve never seen an actual brown IPA so far, in spite of the fact that IPA is all over this world nowadays... I like beers that make me think about beer styles and how they relate to each other in modern craft beer experimentation and this one sure left me pondering about the subject. Apart from that, this is also simply a very aromatic, tasty beer, ideal to drink in larger quantities without becoming boring, with different interesting flavor components well matched against each other - though hop bitterness gets the last word of course, this is still an IPA after all. What a little beauty!