6.1

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Another experiment by Pays Noir, and quite an unexpected one: a NEIPA flavoured with, wait for it, strawberry and cardamom - I had many flavoured IPAs including fruit IPAs, but I cannot recall ever having come across this particular combination before. Longneck bottle bought somewhere in the Walcourt region, probably at Drink Malpaix, in early summer (so considering this is intended as a NEIPA, I may have waited already too long to open it). Medium sized, egg-white, sparsely lacing, small-bubbled, opening head leaving flat 'islands' in the middle and a steady ring around, hazy yellow blonde robe with warm apricot hue. Aroma of - unsurprisingly perhaps - obvious (green) cardamom which strangely begins to fade after a few minutes, strawberry-flavoured bubblegum, apple juice, ripe Durondeau pear, honey, industrial cider, powder sugar melting on a hot pancake, chalk, ginger ale, candyfloss, quince jam, soap. Fruity onset, sharpish effervescence (more so than expected from a NEIPA), lots of apple and ripe pear with a dash of banana, but then this strawberry effect passes by, not too strongly so - at least less dominant than expected based on the nose - but still lingering and adding a kind of artificial bubblegum effect rather than a true strawberry experience; altogether sweet, even very slightly sticky and ginger ale-like, with a slender bready malt core filling the middle, still topped with unfermented sweetness of a fruity and powder-sugary nature. The cardamom, though strong orthonasally (at least in the beginning), unveils itself towards the end, with a pronounced retronasal aspect of 'Indian curry' - yet, unexpectedly, also managing to avoid the spicy astringency I was fearing. What is remarkably absent, however, is this wave of tropical, juicy hoppiness I expect from a NEIPA - though a waferthin slice of exotic citrus does appear at some point. Some cardamom bitterishness in the end, something vaguely hoppy in a more earthy than tropical way, and a strong bubblegum effect make up the finish, with a chalky note lingering about - and even that annoying molten powder sugar or candyfloss effect sticking a bit to the teeth and throat. The strawberry effect has long passed by then, while the cardamom remains subtle enough not to dominate; I did not expect this combination to work, and indeed it doesn't. There is a lot to say about this experiment: first of all, this is structurally not a NEIPA but a Belgian blonde randomly mimicking the haziness, fruitiness, sweetness and low bitterness of a NEIPA without ever entering the realm of true NEIPA - so with all due respect for brewer's intent, these guys clearly have no clue what NEIPA is about (see the text they put on their back label explaining what they think NEIPA should be - in itself commendable enough, but not one single word about hops, which I hope I can still assume is the centerpiece of anything with the three letters 'IPA' in its name, even juicy NEIPAs where hops are all about aroma instead of bitterness). Second, combinig strawberry and cardamom as added flavours to any beer may be called 'experimental', but seems mostly improper and ill-judged, especially if the strawberry is not real strawberry but a bubblegummy, artificial strawberry sweetness. On the plus side, they did not exaggerate either the strawberry or the cardamom so I guess it could have ended up much worse than this. The way I see it: weirdass Belgian blonde trying to be hip. Have a point for originality, if nothing else.