Pikahop
Brouwerij De Backer in Massemen, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgian Style - Blonde / Pale / Amber Regular|
Score
6.87
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Expressief hoppig aroma, mooie bitterheid
Alc.: 5,5% VOL.
Bitterheid: 32 IBU
Kleur: amber (25 EBC)
Belgische mout: Pilsmout, Melano light, Roggemout, Cara 120, Tarwemout
Belgische hop: Magnum, Cascade, Chinook, Sorachi Ace, Centennial
Belgische gist: T-58
Schenktemperatuur: 10°C
Beschikbaar sinds: oktober 2019
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Bierridder (4318) ticked Pikahop from Brouwerij De Backer 4 years ago
tderoeck (22711) reviewed Pikahop from Brouwerij De Backer 4 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
13/V/21 - 33cl bottle from Geers (Oostakker), shared @ Akke’s place, BB: 10/IV/21 (2021-383)
Pretty clear blond to orange beer, big creamy beige head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: bit malty, oxidized, some banana, herbal touch, bit spicy, ripe fruits. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bit yeasty, bitter, honey, bit oxidized, good hoppy notes, malty, some caramel. Aftertaste: spicy, dried fruits, malty, bit hoppy, more caramel.
jefverstraete (7489) reviewed Pikahop from Brouwerij De Backer 5 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 6.5
Bottle from De Hopduvel. Hazy amber colour, white foam. Dry, some citrussy, medium bitter finish. Not an outspoken flavour and aroma but good and well balanced.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Pikahop from Brouwerij De Backer 6 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
The second beer by this new microbrewery near Wetteren, which is all about brewing with completely Belgian ingredients, except for the spicing in their first beer (a witbier called Pikaflor), but then the brewer apparently intends to grow even those (exotic) spices himself… Anyway, this hop-forward blonde - and therefore almost by definition a 'Belgian IPA' in our present time - was hopped with a series of New World hop varieties that were grown in Belgium. Very slow gusher, but by the time the foam begins to creep out of the bottle, you'll have finished half of your glass - so plenty of time to pour it properly. Thick and frothy, off-white, very mousy and stable head, only very slowly showing gaps here and there, on a misty deep amber-hued orangey-peach beer with 'dirty ochre-ish' tinge especially after adding the sediment. Aroma of old dry biscuit, dried orange peel, old cheese rind, crushed peanuts, toasted onion, pink peppercorns, old paprika powder, very vague hint of rusty iron (oxidation?), black radish peel, soggy rusk, dry baker's yeast especially after adding the sediment, red apple that has been cut and exposed to air for a while, nutmeg. Fruity, crisp onset, lively carbonated with minerally effects, dried apple peel, baked banana and vague apricot notes but nowhere explicitly sweet, rounded and smooth rusk-, peanut- and bread crust-like malt profile (including a light rye spiciness), phenolic nutmeg-like aspect mingling with the retronasal aromatics of the hops which in this case remain quite 'dry' and restrained, reminiscent of old dried citrus peel, some bitter herbs and pink peppercorns with a touch of fried onion, a bit 'West-Coasty' in a sense but subtly so. Meanwhile the yeast adds a bready effect in the background while fruity and spicy aspects linger, as well as minerally aspects and an eventually rooty, leafy hop bitterness, which, though explicit and long enough, remains altogether relatively mild. Belgian blonde with a light New World twist thanks to all those hops, but as usual in Belgian attempts at international hoppiness, both the aromas and the bitterness of these wonderful varieties remain very understated. I guess they had to be kept in balance with the malt profile (which is quite complex and pleasant) in the opinion of the creator and I can understand why, but still I feel that it is a pity to use American hop varieties - even if grown in Belgium with a necessarily different flavour profile as a result - and not let hem shine all the way, like they can do so beautifully in many foreign IPAs. My particular sample also showed minor signs of onsetting oxidation in spite of having been bottled only seven weeks ago, so there seems to be a technical issue that needs to be addressed as well. That said, for a, well, second attempt (I haven't had the first one yet), this is a surprisingly decent beer, in which clearly a lot of thought and work has been invested - many other attempting microbrewers can learn from this approach. In all, not bad at all!