5.9

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Helder goudgeel bier met weinig schuim. Smaak is bitter hoppig en fruitig met iets van citrus, wat houttonen en hars. De echte koffiesmaak heb ik niet kunnen ontdekken of dat moet het houtachtige in de smaak geweest zijn. Desondanks goed drinkbaar bier.

7

Magus, kohvine, kergelt oane, humalane, tsitrus. Ok.

6.2

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

Gents Bier Festival 2023 - Dark yellow with no head. Has some grassy notes. Also peach. Bit watery. Don't get the coffee.

6.8

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

Can. Clear golden, white head. Citrusy hops and a nice coffee/coffee grounds aroma. Sweet citrusy, malty flavour, discrete coffee that works fine in here.

6.1

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Utterly clear darker metallic golden beer, low carbonation to almost no head. Sour and faraway coffee aroma, sour grains, wheat (?). Faint coffee-ish bitterness, but the rest is watered-down pale malts. As to the fresh hops... Light body, almost no slickness, medium bodied at best. Sorry. This is a gimmick.

7.4

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Can at home. Clear golden color, medium sized white head. Aroma is oddly hoppy with coffee notes indeed. Flavor leans more towards the coffee with the hops in the background. Interesting. Quite nice even though I don't think coffee in an IPA is really a good idea.

7.6

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

IPA flavoured with coffee, one of the newer Stroom beers, brewed in Ghent. Egg-white, foamy, very thick and dense, creamy, tightly membrane-lacing head towering over an initially crystal clear, deep and pure 'old golden' coloured beer with strings of visible sparkling rising up from the middle, turning misty and a bit deeper orangey with sediment. Aroma of indeed clear coffee grounds amusingly mingled with impressions of orange zest, mandarin peel, lightly toasted peanuts, sesame seeds, nutmeg, Conference pear and minerals, with a metallic touch of haemoglobin somewhere. Cleanly fruity onset, sweetish with a crisp sourish edge, hinting at Jonagold apple and apricot, lively carbonated in a fine-bubbled but still somewhat stingy way, smooth and oily mouthfeel; pleasant slick peanutty and cereally maltiness with a slight toasty side, well-bittered by a leafy, peppery hoppiness, adding notes of dried orange peel and toasted onion - but the retronasal contributions of the hops are drowned in prominent coffee, which strangely blends in well. Ends dry and quenching, with a slightly astringent hop bitterness reinforced by the astringency of the infused coffee. Quite a powerful beer in terms of taste and aroma, a can packed with flavour indeed; I had a handful of coffee IPAs before (because what does not match with the IPA concept today, right?) but none of them were as convincing as this one. The coffee is strong here, but behaves like an extra spicing element rather than evoking those roasty-bitter 'black' associations one tends to make; I guess similar concepts could have been realized with other bitter spices, like curaçao or even wormwood. In this case, the coffee adds not only flavour, but warmth, personality, power and colour, in a way that matches the citrusy aspects of the hops much better than in any other coffee IPA I had before. May become tiresome after a while, but breathing through your nose after sipping this is pure morning coffee in a very elegant way - something I can certainly appreciate. Much better than expected - in fact, this to me is the best (and certainly most inventive) beer Stroom has produced so far, though I am the first to admit that it will not be anyone's beer. But then, many of the world's truly great beers are not anyone's beers, so who cares!

6.9

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

Can from Geers. Clear golden, thin, off-white head. Aroma of apple peel, unripe pear, mandarin, melon, coffee bean, toasted white bread. Taste has sweetish apple & melon, sourish citrus; bready, bit barley-like maltiness along a bitter coffee bean note. Piney hoppy finish, bit grapefruity, herbal (the coffee effect?), dry & bitter. Medium body, slick texture, average carbonation. Not the most complex of base beers but the coffee adds a nice touch.

7

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7

Pours a clear (fairly), pale blonde. medium sized white head. Scent is mild on the coffee, some fruityness from the hops. Clearly an IPA, not as unbalanced as I feared. Taste is fairly bitter. noticeable coffee, mild roastyness even, yet the hops aren't at all lost to it. Still remains fruity, quite bitter troughout the full experience. This thing actually does work. Bit Belgian profile in terms of esters though - not a great fan of that, but that's just a matter of preference. Certainly this works better than expected !