Hopulair
Skøllmann VOF in Maldegem, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪
Brewed at/by: Gulden SpoorIPA Regular
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Score
6.65
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Een zomerse dorstlesser met een aanwezige maar aangename ronde bitterheid door een subtiele moutige biscuittoets
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Alengrin (11561) reviewed Hopulair from Skøllmann VOF 2 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
"American IPA" (whatever that means) by Skøllmann in Damme, a 'bierfirma' having their products executed at De Meester (formerly Gulden Spoor apparently so it seems to be around for quite a while); seemingly claims to contain mandarin, but the ingredients list does not mention that in any case. Longneck bottle from the Delhaize supermarket at Dok-Noord in Ghent. Thick and frothy, rocky, cobweb-lacing, egg-white, even-bubbled, dense head on a deeply misty orange- to peach blonde robe with almost amberish-brownish tinge. Aroma of dried mandarin peel indeed (!), spoiled chicken soup, wet old yellow curry powder, Italian Marzano tomatoes stewed for a very long time, wrinkled autumn apples, cooked parsnip, pumpkin, cumin cheese, touches of honey, ripe peach, pond water, clove (4-vinyl-guaiacol) and overripe cucumber. 'Greenish', somewhat soupy onset, lacking the brightness that any contemporary IPA should have, directed at cooked pumpkin, unripe peach and stewed eggplant with a touch of apple peel, remaining appropriately low in sweetness whilst acquiring more of that soupy umami flavour (as in chervil or chicken soup); quite spritzy in carbonation, with softish mouthfeel. Cereally core with a rusk- and breadstick-like malty layer on top of it, so actually more malty than many a contemporary IPA (unjustly) is, with these malts - even becoming a wee bit toasty in the end - being overruled by a leafy, somewhat earthy but also very thinly citrusy hoppiness, fighting against a heavy, almost 'meaty' dosage of clove- and bouillon-like 4-vinyl-guaiacol. Aromatically speaking it loses the fight ingloriously, but luckily the hops do provide a trace of an earthy, wet autumn-leafy, 'dark' bitterness in the end, lasting for a while. Yet again, we are presented with a weird attempt at 'generic' American IPA - that alone is suspicious enough already - in the country of overly yeasty, sometimes brilliant and sometimes oddly earthy and unbalanced ales, resulting in something best overarchingly described as 'Belgian IPA'. This one in particular clearly has no clue, as it seemingly tries to evoke the old West Coast idiom - in itself already dated for at least a decade - and miserably fails at that. Too bad: I recall having their black IPA (preceding this one for all I know) along with Yuri Hegge at one of the Zythos beer festivals in Leuven, and actually liking it... This is a completely different story altogether, very soupy, yeasty, earthy and phenolic - even within the "Belgian IPA" category, I cannot honestly say I liked this. I am always suspicious when the De Meester name appears - and yet again it is clear that IPAs in the 'international' sense are not their cup of tea at all, regardless of what Skøllmann's imput is. Could, and should, have been much better.
Sloefmans (15338) reviewed Hopulair from Skøllmann VOF 1 year ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Gushing to huge, dense, lightly yellowish whipped eggwhite-like head over well-carbonated, fully hazy yellow beer. Wood, spices (rosemary?), (dried) pineneedles, hopoil. Quite bitter. Bit oxydized hops. Dull bitterness, herbal, almost pharmaceutical, earthy. Medium bodied, very slick, almost overcarbonated. Earthiness keeps hanging around. Bit weird taste, undefined.
Bierridder (4160) ticked Hopulair from Skøllmann VOF 2 years ago
beerhunter111 (50413) reviewed Hopulair from Skøllmann VOF 3 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
33cl bottle. A clear dark golden beer with a white head. Aroma of dry biscuit malt, some oranges, pine. Taste of dry bitter hops, grapefruit, some pine, oranges. Moderate to long bitter finish.
tderoeck (22679) reviewed Hopulair from Skøllmann VOF 3 years ago
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
20/XI/22 - 33cl bottle from... I forgot, shared @ home, BB: 1/V/24 (2022-1637)
Clear orange blond beer, huge creamy dense off-white head, very stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: lovely, lots of tropical fruits, juicy, mango, a bit malty, sweet impression. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: a bit chemical, bitter, malty, dry, a bit fruity, very bitter, resinous hops. Aftertaste: malty, a bit oxidized, grains, hay, caramel, very bitter, not bad, not great either. First smell was promising, but then it was rather disappointing.