Yak
Stroom Brouwers in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Farmhouse Regular|
Score
6.80
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We use kveik yeast, a Norwegian farmhouse style noted for it’s fast fermentations. The strain we use offers a beautiful citrus background to the beer. We then spice things up with Sichuan peppercorns. This gives the beer an added dimension of complexity, but we don’t get too carried away! This is a big beer for someone looking for a twist on tradition.
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Alengrin (11609) reviewed Yak from Stroom Brouwers 4 years ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
A surprising newcomer on the Ghent brewing scene, the Stroom project in the ‘Heirnis’ quarter in the eastern part of the city, was set up by a local and an American, the latter having already brewed with Humboldt & Gauss (another Ghent brewing initiative, sadly discontinued now), and seems intent on delivering only modern, U.S. or ‘international’ style craft beers – definitely one I will follow with great interest. This Yak is a saison spiced with Szechuan pepper, an East-Asian spice I encountered several times before in beer – sometimes with bizarre results. Small-bubbled, medium thick, moussy, snow white head, hazy peach blonde robe with amberish and beige-ish shades. Very herbal and indeed ‘Far East’ coloured aroma, basil or even peppermint leaf, Asian chicken soup with a lot of cilantro (or even ‘carbonades à la Flamande’ with a lot of bayleaf in it, according to another taster), eucalyptus leaf somewhere, yarrow, herb tea, rusk, black pepper. Sweetish, fruity onset, bit estery (kveik!), peach and stewed fig notes, softish carb, smooth body; bread-crusty and soggy rusk-like malts, touch of old peanuts, slight sourish edge, with this very pronounced herbal effect from the Szechuan pepper returning, bringing back all that chicken broth, cilantro, flowery yarrow, basil and mint leaf – a combination of flavours all attributable to that one ingredient, achieving total dominance, with only a streak of floral hop bitterness and a bready malt effect remaining noticeable. Extremely herbal – as in some other Szechuan-spiced beers I had, so I should not be too surprised. Unusual choice with unusual result, took a while to get used to, but at least it is another kind of start than the umpteenth generic APA or IPA… Not entirely sure what to think of this one, but one thing is for sure: this new Ghent brewery can expect a visit from me in the near future, because this beer sure made me curious.
Sebletitje (15877) reviewed Yak from Stroom Brouwers 4 years ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Can sample during Gents Bierfestival '21 - shared with Tderoeck and Nathan. BB 08/2022.
Dorée oscillant sur orange, col fin crémeux blanc.
Arôme au bouquet frais rendant de suite un côté houblonné noble anglais - pointe terreuse avec un léger fruité agrumes - l'ajout de poivre de Sichuan rend de belles effluves poivrées mais avec une fraicheur plaisante en retrait sans trop du résidu épicé.
Palais est léger, finement malté, ajout neutre de cette base de levure kveik qui permet de bien ressentir les notes houblonnées - dont un léger côté agrumes et un caractère aromatique subtile du Sichuan.
Belle surprise de cette nouvelle micro-brasserie gantoise.
tderoeck (22711) reviewed Yak from Stroom Brouwers 4 years ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
Average of two ratings, one from can, one from tap.
13/IX/21 - sample on tap @ brewery visit Stroom Brouwers (Gent), BB: n/a (2021-xxx)
Ap: 6, Ar: 7, Fl: 7, Txt: 6, O: 7.5, Total: 8.5
Clear orange beer, small creamy off-white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: bit malty, grains, cow fodder, spicy, bit peppery, little soapy. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: malty start, some caramel, soft bitterness, bit yeasty, more bitter hops. Aftertaste: some citrus notes, malty, grains, spicy touch, gentle bitterness, bit sourish. Not getting much szechuan pepper here…
21/VIII/21 - 33cl can @ Gents Bierfestival (Gent), BB: VIII/2022 (2021-909)
Ap: 8, Ar: 8, Fl: 6, Txt: 6, O: 5.5, Total: 6.6
Clear orange beer, creamy beige head, stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: a little spicy, yeasty character, some banana, lemony touch, citrus notes, some grapefruit. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: very yeasty, banana, spicy touch, herbal, soft bitterness, ok. Aftertaste: dry finish, little fruity, spicy, bit herbal, banana, yeast, a little sweet, ok beer, not great. Was hoping to taste that szechuan better…