(Draught at Poechenellekelder, Brussels, 23 Oct 2022) Golden colour with frothy, white head. Fruity, hoppy nose with notes of grapefruit, tropical fruit and peaches. Fruity, hoppy taste with tropical fruit, pineapple, passion-fruit, resin and a balanced citric/tropical bitterness. Medium body, with a certain sweetness. Hardly exciting, but tasty and well balanced. Quite nice.

Bottle. Clear orange/gold with a huge white head. Aroma of grapefruits and yeast. Taste of wheat, yeast, grapefruits, apricots and zest with some spice. Long lasting strong bitterness. Low to medium carbonation. This is an ok/standard Belgian IPA.

Golden colour with fluffy head. Has notes of yellow fruits. A little peachy. Slightly yeasty.

Bottle, 6.7%. Hay and grass songs, followed by coriander. Almost clear golden colour. Ok stable white head. The flavour is malty, teaish, creamy with a mild coriander note. Good.

David Blocteur from Gembloux, organizer of Festibière in the Namur province has originated this 'Dikkenek' beer in 2016, then brewed at Belgoo, but four years later production moved to Lefêbvre who integrated it in their Unplugged series, so I completely agree with the admins' decision to create a separate entry for the new version. Not to be confused with Affligem's old Dikkenek, taken over by Kerkom after that - this one is a completely different story, or at least I think so... This Lefêbvre Unplugged version shows a thick and frothy, very tightly and lastingly cobweb-lacing, rocky, egg-white, very stable head and crystal clear, pure and warm 'old' golden robe, remaining completely clear till the end so clearly filtered. Aroma - to the extent that it can escape through this 'cauliflower' of a clearly artificially enhanced head - unveils impressions of raw 'witlof', fresh wormwood leaf, grapefruit pith, green banana, unripe apricot, raw black radish, freshly cut grass or thistles, a 'cooked' and even vaguely smoky note of pasteurization (cooked cotton cloth, even melting rubber or unsmoked shag), old Graham crackers, raw green beans, jute rope, mineral-rich dry soil. Clean, sleek onset, restrained in sweetness with lively yet - for style - acceptable effervescence, some unripe banana and dried apricot hints but remaining very subdued in fruitiness too; minerally side effects surrounding a rounded, slick and relatively thinnish body, composed of lightly toasted, cleanly bread-crusty and cereally malts, almost immediately bittered by a leafy, spicy, wormwoody hoppiness, adding quinine- and bitterroot-like pepperiness which lasts for quite a long time, obliterating the little fruitiness there was in the beginning as well as the altogether thin malt profile, while falling short of retronasal aromatics this type of beers desperately needs. Well-hopped alright, with long-lasting hop bitterness, but in a clean, studied, almost 'fabricated' way; the pasteurization, among the cruellest things a brewer can do to his beers, does not help in trying to evoke what this beer might have been like when left unharmed. Altogether very different from the Belgoo version: much more 'industrial' and sleek, but with less brewing mistakes if looked upon from the bright side. Even though I hate pasteurization and have never been impressed by what Lefêbvre does, I think I like this version better by an inch. Cheers to that.

Huge dense & ultrafine yellowish head over clear metallic orange-golden beer with textbook lace. Spicy nose, spicy malts & hops, nettles, bit yeasty. Light acidity superimposed upon sweetish pale malts. Finish sports a light unspecified bitterness, accentuated by the CO². Again quite spicy. Warming up a bit, the acidity becomes a tad citrussy, even a bit galvanic. Spring water quality. Light to medium body, good carbonation, bit slick - certainly also through the head. Not the worst - is Lefebvre finally waking up to the present? Txs to Stef!

Bouteille 33cl, BB 11/03/2022 de Carrefour Ixelles.
Deuxième de la nouvelle série de bière éphémère de Br Lefebvre - idée des jeunes de la famille pour apporter un peu de fraicheur de style.
Dorée claire, col épais crémeux et tenace blanc.
Arôme est frais, houblonné avec des effluves d'agrumes avec en suspension un bouquet belge esters-phénols assez classique. on est bien dans la lignée Lefebvre. Pointe douceur presque vanille en retrait avec un fleuri houblonné avec un retrait de litchi et amertume qui laisse plus sur une impression de pils.
Palais est de suite sur une approche plus belge au niveau du grains - pas mal de pils en dominance, je retrouve une pétillance un peu faible ou en tout cas qui manque de mettre en avant les houblons. Ces derniers sont un peu sur une approche noble - je note un léger rétro de fruits blancs. La fin de bouche rappelle trop la version Hopus légèrement revisitée. Le caractère belge est très dominant avec un houblonné qui peine à propulser cette version vers une IPA - belge.
Pas aussi bien que la version Funky Brett.

Reste toujours que les ingrédients des deux versions demeurent des sortes de secret bien gardé.