Bottle provided by Benjamin - many thanks! Hazy ochre, small, frothy, off-white head. Aroma of oxidized melon, strawberry, peach, grape, biscuit, vague lychee, herbal mix, thyme. Taste has sweetish melon, strawberry & tangerine, hint of zesty lime & citrus in a bready malty profile. Bitter, herbal & earthy hoppy finish, touch of grapefruit and crisp citrus (in a dried-out way). Medium body, slick texture, average carbonation. Sure, past its prime, but nice to have tried.

1/VII/21 - 33cl bottle from Brouwbar (Gent) shared @ home, BB: n/a (2021-551)

Pretty cloudy blond to beige beer, big noisy crackling white head, looks like dish wash foam, slowly collapsing, bit adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: fruity notes when pouring, citrus, some tropical fruits, little oxidized, some honey, sweet peaches and apricots, hint of banana and bubble gum, some orange peel and orange flavoured candy. MF: lively carbon, medium to light body. Taste: nice bitterness up front, quite some citrus notes, grassy, little malty, some grapefruit, little watery. Aftertaste: bit fruity, pretty bitter, some grapefruit, orange peel, more citrus notes, still pretty darn ok, despite the (little) oxidation that’s starting to show.

The fourth NEIPA created by Brouwbar, and not even the last one, as NI62 came after this one – fortunately the brewpub still had a few bottles of this NI60, otherwise I would have missed it. Snow white, moussy, quite thick, papery lacing head on a misty apricot blonde robe with ochre-ish tinge. Aroma of fresh herbes de Provençe like young bayleaf, freshly cut sage leaves, a whiff of tarragon and fresh savory, even an impression of matcha and other green tea, paprika powder, kumquat, lime zest, lemon cake, lemonbalm, paraffin. Fruity onset but cleanly so, sweetish unripe banana and green melon, medium carb, supple and slick mouthfeel; white-bready, cereally, slender maltiness under this unexpectedly herbal hoppiness, bringing back this array of freshly cut Mediterranean kitchen herbs, along with green tea and refreshing lime zest aspects; ends mildly bitter, but less so than NI62. Unusual for a NEIPA, very herbal in a fresh, ‘deep green’ way, which is not what I normally associate with Sabro hops – because that was apparently the variety used here… Sure, the bottles were not farm fresh anymore so I did not drink this one as fresh as it was intended – and some of the remaining bottles did become too oxidized in the meantime to be enjoyable, but I was lucky enough to get one that had evolved into something unexpected. Even Benjamin, the brewer (and proprietor of the pub, which is among my favorites in Ghent), was not expecting this result at all, but it is clear that this version beats the other four Brouwbar NEIPAs at least in originality…