6.8

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

7.1

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

30/VII/24 - 33cl bottle from De Hopduvel (Gent), shared @ Ardennes Holiday, BB: 28/II/27 (3 years for an IPA? Oh boy…), 8004240228 (2024-641)

Clear orange beer, big solid creamy off-white head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: nice, lots of grapefruit, zesty, fruity, peaches, a bit metallic. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: nice, fruity, bitter, a bit spicy, herbal, some grapefruit, zesty, yeast. Aftertaste: more yeast, bitter, grassy, very bitter, a bit metallic, meh.

7.4

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

IPA with yuzu - an Asian citrus species seen in beer every now and then - for a Circus Brouwerij client called 'Bruur'; I expect them to come up with more beers as this yuzu IPA sees any success, so we will see how it evolves. Fermented with saison yeast, I expect it to land in the 'Belgian IPA' territory even in spite of its highlighted exotic ingredient... Inches thick, bath-foamy, yellowish egg-white, cobweb-lacing, pillowy head on a misty apricot blonde beer with orangey 'old golden' tinge. Aroma of obvious yuzu (or fresh citrus flesh in general) indeed, orange zest, lemon verbena, some lavender-scented hand soap, pumice, fresh lemonbalm, spice bread, clove, wet bluestone, dry cookies, chamomile, dock leaf, fresh Florence fennel, blossoming rosemary and ornamental onion, vague pine resin and even chicken broth touch faraway in the background but the latter nowhere acting disturbingly - quite a bright and colourful nose indeed. Spritzy, crisp onset, sharpish carbonation numbing the tongue a bit but not to the point where it becomes painful, over a dry general flavour vaguely hinting at dried grapefruit and perhaps quince but otherwise devoid of real fruitiness; supple, lean body, bread-crusty and dry cracker-like maltiness with even a very slight toasty touch, under growing hop bitterness which eventually, combined with the inherent bitterness of the yuzu, dominates the finish, in a spicy, rooty, slightly piney and mildly grapefruity way, adding retronasal sensations of lemon thyme, grapefruit peel, some lemongrass and dried lavender. Some yeasty notes from the saison yeast too - unsurprisingly - manifesting themselves as a certain earthiness in the tail and clove- and very faintly anise-like hints retronasally. Dry, in the end quite earthy, well-bittered Belgian IPA as predicted - the yuzu accentuates the citrus peel bitterness here, but largely fails to bring that sunny, juicy crispness of fresh citrus I was expecting. Even more so, if I had not known it was in here, I probably would not have guessed, though I would likely have pointed out 'dried grapefruit peel' or something similar as an extra ingredient. Not entirely delivering on the yuzu, but other than that a fairly decent IPA, if lingering in that ambiguous 'Belgian IPA' field. Enjoyed it, but expected more, to be honest.