Very good for a low alcohol IPA. Fruity, malty. Medium sweet, tangy, nice.

At last, the hyped Dutch non-alcoholic IPA I have seen pass so many times on social media - very curious to find out if it is as good as the Dutch beer hipsters say... Bottle from De Hopduvel in Ghent. Irish moss-like lacing, medium thick, off-white, mousy, very stable head only slowly showing gaps here and there, on a misty, warm amberish-orange beer with vague khaki-ish hue, deeper clouded orange with sediment (first non-alcoholic beer with sediment I encounter - probably the haze often associated with dry-hopping in this case). Aroma indeed very convincingly IPA-like and quite complex, hinting at half-dry orange peel and a lot of it, old barbecue spices, dry marijuana, persimmon, crumbled rusk, cedar essential oil, toasted onion, biscuit, sweet paprika, some 'tropical dankness' even. Clean onset with restrained persimmon-, dried mango- and orange-like fruity aspects, sweetish but not quite, well-carbonated yet nothing harshly numbing with a supple, oily body, feeling remarkably full for an alcohol-free beer. Biscuity, slick maltiness, sweetish with a thin toasty-nutty edge, quickly soaked in strong, oily, piney, citrus peel-like hop bitterness with a lovely orange-like quality retronasally, depositing a very long-stretched, pleasantly peppery bitterness on the tongue and throat, effectively drying and quenching, adding further body, with a certain 'powderiness' to it in the end. A rainwater-like, 'zingy' minerally note lingers in the end. This is, I have to admit, indeed a very impressive feat... Looks, smells and tastes like an old school West Coast IPA in all respects, with considerably more body than anyone could ever expect from a non-alcoholic beer. The imitation of a full-fledged counterpart has near completely succeeded in this one - and that is a lot more than I have ever been able to say about any other non-alcoholic beer I ever had in my life. Would never have guessed this is alcohol-free if I hadn't known: this Playground deserves its status completely, this is by far the single best non-alcoholic beer I ever had, I don't think they come any better than this... In that sense, this may well be VandeStreek's most remarkable achievement so far, with all due respect for their other brews. Kudos.

22/02/2019 - 33cl bottle @Gainsbar, Kortrijk Clear yellow, nice white head. Nose has lots of fruits, fresh hops, bit caramel. Taste is fresh fruity hops, sweet touch, bit caramel. Really stunning for this ABV.

Thick, good yellow head, clinging foam and textbook lace over lively carbonated pale copper beer with a green sheen. Bit caramel and C-hops. Lunaria, diluted grapefruit juice, starfruit; Quite bitter, ever so slightly metallic (especially in the finish where it becomes harsh). Fruitiness is dimmer in the taste than in the nose. Thinnish, but refreshing. Very well-carbonated.. Quite OK.

33cl bottle from Albert Hein. Nice hoppy aroma. Medium creamy white head. Cloudy amber pour. Bitter malty aftertaste. Good effort

Tropical fruit, light resin, sweet oranges, sugar. Quite decent for a non-alcoholic drink.

Thuis uit een flesje. Mooie troebele oranje kleur, heerlijk hoppig aroma en een uitstekende ipa smaak. Bijzonder goed voor een alcoholvrije ipa, goed gedaan!