Vaccin 1.0

The first in a new series of Alvinne creations gathered under the VACCIN acronym, ironically referring to the corona pandemic; two further variants have already been released at the time I'm writing this, so Alvinne clearly is not wasting any time... This first one is simply Phi (one of their core beers) dry-hopped with Barbe Rouge, one of the new(ish) Alsace varieties with a 'New World aroma'. Medium thick, mousy, egg-white, breaking and eventually dissolving head on a cloudy warm peach blonde beer with 'dirty' orange hue. Lush aroma of unripe oranges, lemonbalm, stewed rhubarb, ripe apricot, kumquat, crushed gooseberries, freshly baked white bread, fried pineapple slices, wet wood, yellow plum, vague hints of unripe nectarine, bacon, fried chicken wings and damp earth. Sweet and sour onset, very fruity and colourful, lots of green plum, ripe gooseberry, nectarine, pineapple and sour grape impressions - the Phi's natural esters mingled with expressive hop fruitiness; sour, but in a citric, refreshing and not harshly 'burning' way, nicely lactic, drying a softly carbonated, full, smooth sweet-bready malt core, which is soon drenched in bright 'yellow orange' fruitiness, ending a tad vinous, complex and woody-tannic, but remaining juicy and fruity; lovely bready, spicy and even faintly smoky effects add further layers of depth and beauty, while a retronasal wave of blood orange reminds one of the generous Barbe Rouge dose - and the fact that this is, after all, intended as a form of IPA... 'Sour IPA' usually manifests itself as a 'simple' kettle sour dry-hopped with New World hop varieties, but in this case, this - commercially driven - term does not do this creation enough justice. This is a deep and complex barrel aged sour, adorned with a well-fitting aroma of an interesting hop variety - and again a delicious masterpiece by this historically important and still highly productive, top level brewery.

20/05/2020 @home - 33cl botlle delivered at home by Glenn himself.
Orange coloured, small white head. Nose is sour, fruity, bit herbal. Taste starte with typical Phi flavours, sour, very fruity, some hops. Not my favorite take on the Phi (but that's my personal taste and has nothing to do with the quality of the beer) but nice however.

This is something else... New beer style. Morpheus and hops and Glenn... Magic!