Samurai

ISA from Fugu, a Belgian brewing project located in Brussels, hopped with classic Japanese Sorachi Ace (hence the Japan-inspired name and label) and Chinook cultivated in Belgium (who would have thought that would ever happen just two decades ago). Can from the Delhaize supermarket in Zele. Thick and frothy, egg-white, 'Brugse kant'-like lacing, irregular but nicely stable head on a misty pale straw blonde robe with goldenrod-yellow tinge. Aroma of dried dill (strongly so even - in that sense immediately recognisable as Sorachi Ace!), starfruit, light guava, cucumber peel, hint raw turnip, cold oatmeal porridge without the sweetness, faint echoes of wild garlic, cilantro and lime (which should all be much more clear). Juicy onset, not too sweet though, hinting at green guava, starfruit and green pear, lively carbonated with important minerally effects - but in a very small-bubbled way; slick wheaty core with 'barley' white-breadiness at the edges, soft and fluffy, feeling a tad thicker than what one would expect at this ABV. The hops do not drown the malts completely - as is usually the case in any form of hazy IPA today - but creep in more gradually, eventually taking over with a retronasal reprisal of the guava, green pear and starfruit, superimposed by the dried dill effect and prolonged down below with a lingering herbal bitterishness lending more 'fullness' to the finish. Postmodern hazy session IPA with the classic Sorachi Ace signature written all over it (and let us not forget that Sorachi Ace has been around since the eighties already) - it delivers what it promises, but I know people who are not too fond of that dill-like quality of Sorachi Ace and exactly that aspect is very prominent here. If you do not mind that and are open to this quirky character of Japan's most famous hop variety, I think you will find a fine summer quencher in this beer in a very reasonable 'supermarket beer' price category.

Small white head over palet yellow-golden beer, finely carbonated. Aromatic, if modest hops. Citrus & exotic fruit, herbal. Dry hops, with fruity, if again, dullish esters. Other grains, kernels, citruspeel. Very light body; medium carbonation, absolutely refreshing. Excellent as a summer refreshener.

Slightly hazy pale golden yellow beer with a white head. Aroma of coconut, sorachi ace, hay. Taste of grassy and herbal hops, sorachi ace, wheat. Easy to drink.

On tap @Dynamo, Bruselas. 04/04/2024. Color amarillo claro corona de espuma blanca cítricos, herbal, cereal cuerpo medio.

Trockener, bitter-hopfiger Beginn. Ziemlich trocken bleibend, spritzig, mittellanger Abgang. Ok. 10/7/8/7//8