7.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

The second beer from this new Ghent microbrewery - Ghent is showing a whole lot of international style brewing activity these days, and has become all the more interesting in recent years if you know where to look. Tasted this one from tap at Geus van Gent, shared by Goedele. Thick, cobweb-lacing, very stable, egg-white head over a completely clouded, pale brownish-tinged coppery amber beer. Aroma of fresh orange peel, pink grapefruit flesh, pistachio nuts, dried mango, sweet red onions, frying oil, paprika powder, sundried tomatoes, persimmon, ripe pear, pine resin, slight marijuana. Juicy, fruity onset, lots of mango, persimmon and unripe banana, sweetish with a granadilla-like sourish touch somewhere, sharpish carbonation for the style but not as painfully numbing as with their Populist (at least from tap) tasted next to this one. Smooth, creamy, fluffy and full mouthfeel, very pleasant peanutty malt sweetness with soft bitterish edge, matching well with a juicy, tropically aromatic hoppy finish in which the mango, grapefruit and light pine return, adding mild bitterness on the root of the tongue - a bit more peppery than in the Populist, but still soft and highly elegant. Quenching, delicious and very aromatic little beer, even more interesting than the already remarkably modern, 'international' and non-traditional Populist; in terms of style, this one seems to be intended as a New England red IPA - the first with this particular set of features I encounter. Have an extra point for originality, especially within the often rather conservative environment of Belgian beer chauvinism.