Bottled (from Alko Prisma Vaasa). Hazy amber colour with a big off-white foamy head, which leaves some lace. Aroma is fruity, grapefruity and mild nectary and alcohol sweetness to it. Flavour is grapefruits, citrus, some white peppery tones with mild alcohol and some nectar as well.

Huge, very stable frothy off-white head leaving lace over orangey golden beer. Bird droppings, goose sh*t, canned bamboo, canned lychee, gradually going to fresher fruity esters, grass. Again an onset with dubious ingredients, then bettering into fruity esters with a corn and maltbacking. Chewy, oily. Good carbonation. The longer this beer stands, the more the faults are gummed out, as being volatile. Weird. Maybe a bit more effort in the beer, rather than in the namegiving?

Seasonal DIPA from Flying Dutchman, so - as usual with this gypsy brewer - a ridiculously long name. Bottle from Gedeelde Vreugde. Thick, papery lacing, egg-white, uneven-bubbled but firm and stable head on a hazy to even slightly cloudy, deep orangey peach blonde beer with ochre-ish tinge. Aroma of yellow grapefruit, fresh wormwood leaf, spruce tips, raw endive, orange zest, gin, crackers, dry biscuit, diesel, hints of persimmon, cayenne pepper, white bread dough, green melon, bitter beech tree leaves, dandelion juice and kumquat. Spritzy onset, cleanish fruity notes of persimmon, unripe apricot and kumquat, lively carbonated; sweetish but restrainedly so, with a slight sourish undertone and early signs of hop bitterness. Smooth, oily body, bit resinous, soft biscuity and cracker-like maltiness with a peanutty edge, bittered early on by a very grapefruity, spicy, firm, long-lasting, eventually very rooty and quinine-like hop bitterness, releasing retronasal notes of grapefruit peel, pine resin and wormwood, blending in with a gin-like alcohol element in the end, warming but not overly dominant, adorned with very light yeasty touches. Lots of lingering grapefruitiness and tangy spiciness, but soft biscuitiness peeps through in the end as well. Quite astringent, uncompromising in its hop bitterness like any old school West Coast DIPA; could have been just a little bit cleaner in the yeast department, perhaps, but there are admittedly no esters or phenols strong enough to hinder the evolution of the hops and their communication with the malts. Feels quite 'herbal', but very grapefruity as well with a piney aspect to it, just what I like in a classic DIPA; not the most refined example of the style I had by far, but it does qualify as one of Flying Dutchman's more memorable and expressive beers. Too bad we are already in benign spring weather here in Belgium meanwhile so I guess I am missing out on the hibernating and darkness biting aspect - but I do not normally bother to remember (or even read) the complete names of these Flying Dutchman beers anyway, so who cares. Enjoyed it, in all, though I can imagine younger beer geeks unfamiliar with how DIPA was ten to twenty years ago, will be unprepared for so much 'raw' hop bitterness...

Draught @ You’ll Never Walk Alone, Kolding. Pours cloudy amber with airy but stable off-white head. Mild aroma of hops and flowers, with fruity notes and estery touches. Mild, bitter flavour of hops and grass, with citric and estery hints and fruity touches. Estery and needlelike aftertaste. Okay but the taste must be hibernating, given the style.

Cloudy amber, airy and unstable offwhite head. Grapefruit, caramel and malt aroma, later it gets more dank, piney in a wet way. Bittersweet flavour, grapefruit, a little peach and orange, smooth malt and nice hoppy bitterness. Some ok roughness in the finish. Warming without overt alcohol. Ok, nothing out of the ordinary.

Cloudy dark blond with lasting head. Aroma and flavour have a lot of juicy tropical fruit. Lasting bitterness. Smooth.

Tap at Rootz Winterbier. Unclear golden with white head. Sweet malts, citrus peels, honey. Quite sweet and moderate bitter. Medium body and soft carbonation. --- Beer merged from original tick of Winter Biting Darkness Fighting Imperial IPA on 10 Dec 2018 at 13:04 - Score: 7

Tap at Rootz festival. Bit hazy golden with bubbly almost white head. Sweet malts, soft spruce, light orange, 🍊, soft flowers, sugary, quite grassy. Over medium sweet and bitter. Almost full bodied. OK.

Smell of hops, spruce, some vanilla. Cloudy amber colour, off-white head. Aroma of spruce, hops. Earth in finish. Lively carbon. Bitter, medium sweet. Quite OK, but rather generic imperial IPA.