Bottle 33cl. @home poured into tumbler. Light sourish nose. Hazy pale amber colour, good frothy white head, diminishing slowly, light lacing. Aroma pale malt, peach, apricot, light tangerine, yeast, grassy hops. Taste medium sweet, light bitter and light acidic notes, malty, peach, apricot, some tangerine, grass, some yeast, spicy notes. Medium body oily texture, lively carbonation, lingering sweetbitter aftertaste with light acidic notes, fruity notes, peppery on the tongue, earthy impression, quite good.

The Lupulus (or, formerly, Trois Fourquets - but who remembers that) contribution to this new Brewmance series of collabs initiated by d'Oude Maalderij, a project announced with quite some noise by the Belgian brewers guild and the media, because of the familiar names attached to it. This one is apparently a double dry-hopped IPA so one that particularly sparked my interest, knowing how well-versed Lupulus is with hops, in a 'classical' sense at least (nomen est omen, perhaps: 'lupulus' is the specific name of the hop plant). Thick and frothy, pale yellowish egg-white, dense and regular, creamy, shred-lacing head over a deeply hazed, apricot blonde beer with pale orangey glow and fine sparkling visible through the haze here and there; shifts to a more murky, ochre-tinged peach with sediment completely added. Quite luscious, 'summery' nose of orange blossom, ripe mandarin, peach, green melon, unripe mango, whipped cream, orange zest, bread crumbs, freshly cut grass, pear peel, honey, chamomile, hint of crumbling dry clay. Spritzy, moderately juicy onset, green mango and light guava mingled with peach, plantain and unripe melon, but most of these fruity effects seem derived from hops rather than esters and sweetness is cleverly avoided; lively effervescence, a tad stingy on the tongue for this style of beer perhaps, with strong minerally effects. Sleek, lean mouthfeel; soft soggy-bready and vaguely rusk-like malts under growing hoppiness of a bright, citrusy, peppery and even slightly tropical kind, adding unripe green mango again, as well as orange pith, moist white pepper and grapefruit zest - but somehow a tad less exuberantly than I was expecting based on a first sniff. Minerally effects from the carbonation continue well in the back, the hops add a leafy bitterness which lasts for quite a while and some bready and yeasty accents pop up here and there, though the whole remains altogether clean, as it ought to be in anything called 'IPA' (well, except Belgian IPA perhaps, but you get my drift). Alcohol remains all but completely hidden. In its genetic make-up, this is still a Belgian IPA as we know it, but admittedly the 'Belgian' aspect is rather limited here - I had other examples from all kinds of Belgian breweries with a lot more esters, phenols and so on - and there is, however vague, a certain NEIPA influence to be felt as well. Judging this will depend on your personal IPA criteria and your preferred IPA styles I guess (there are literally dozens by now), but technically speaking, this is a very decent Belgian IPA in my book, more sleek, focused and 'modern' than usual. Even more expressive hop aroma would have been a good thing, though - we are still not entering actual, original Anglo-Saxon IPA style territory here. But then the purpose of this whole series is to be 'classic', so that should not surprise anyone, I reckon. Note also that what is now called the Lupulus brewery, only originated in this century, so to Belgian standards this is perhaps not that classic - though of course there is the historical link with Achouffe, dating back to the early eighties. Well suited food for discussion, I suppose...