Pours dark brown, small, nearly no tanned to white head. Scent is sweet, chocolate, mild nutty notes. faded toffee, hints of caramel. Taste is toffee / caramel. mild nuttyness, hint of earthyness. Bit bitterness (more than expected ) yet relatively clean in terms of aroma's. Medium thin body, medium carbo. OK .

Pours unclear, darker, bit muddy lookin' blonde. Smell has an explosion of fruityness. pineapple, mango, passion fruit. very mild grassy subtone. Still a bit 'green'. Fairly creamy. Taste is To the higher end of the acceptable bitterness for a NEIPA. Noticably 'green' hoppy, mildly herbal even, but still very juicy, fruity. Think mango, passion fruit, pineapple, … Milder white pepper aroma by the typical NEIPA yeast. Medium creamy (milder creamyness than the average NEIPA, perhaps) . Bit more minerality than i'd personally prefer. Very nice though, with a lot of previously rarely achieved features in a 'NEIPA' from Belgium. This is easely top 5 best NEIPA's so far from BE, with all of them currently being one-offs. 3 weeks old at this time, and (by word of the brewer) declining already. Must have been even better fresh, than!

Malcroys' next creation, an American style brown ale, but with a twist, in the form of lagering on rum-soaked oak chips; as the description above reads, cobbled together from leftovers, hence the name. Only for sale at the microbrewery itself in Kontich near Antwerp (also The Beer Shop, an eclectic online shop) and - I assume - very limitedly so; so thanks to Kevin, the brewer, for this bottle, very much appreciated! Thick and frothy, thickly plaster-like lacing, pillowy, small-bubbled, very stable, yellowish-tinged beige head; initially practically clear, deep chestnut brown robe with bright vermillion red glow. Aroma of caramel candy, 'macarons', ground almonds, dried coconut flakes, sourish blackberry accent, sweet-aromatic white rum indeed and rum-soaked yellow raisins, cocoa powder, hints of dried orange peel, melon, old madera, fig compote, stewed pear. Sweetish onset with fruity accents (dried fig, raisin, touch blue plum and even a vague ripe blackberry hint, but all restrained), sourish edge, softly carbonated (bit too soft perhaps for this style), with a very soft, almost 'fluffy' mouthfeel; lovely toffeeish and pecan-nutty maltiness with a slight toasty-bitter edge, but that typical brown ale 'cocoa' or caramel sweetness prevails, in a subtle enough way. The initial sourishness builds up a bit in the end, but not to the point where it becomes out of place in the intended style; a slight tannic woody accent is certainly there but subtly so, while the white rum adds a dried coconut flesh-, nougat- and almond-like aromatic quality retronasally. Lingering cocoa powder, toffee and coconut impressions in the finish, along with a spicy hop bitter layer, merging with the toasty bitter aspect from the malts; a citrus peel-like aspect from the hops does appear but in a sedate, 'dried' and subdued kind of way. The rum-soaked oak chips have more effect here than the hops, but the spiciness of the latter still more or less justifies the 'American' part in 'American brown ale'; more importantly, however, this is first and foremost a true brown ale in the traditional Anglo-Saxon sense of the word, and not just generically 'a brown coloured ale' as it is often misinterpreted in Belgium. It's the malts, in all their soft and sweet nuttiness, caramelliness and cocoa-like flavours that stay in charge here, and that should be the essence of a true brown ale, whether English or American style. Brown ale in general is a genre not often performed here in Belgium - if at all, now that I come to think of it - and a genre not even popular anymore in present-day craft brewing, with the heydays of American brown ale being long past us, dating back to a time when U.S. craft brewers were still cautiously investigating what 'remakes' of old European styles would commercially work and which ones would not; as far as I am concerned, there cannot be enough of them. Fits the description, even if the 'American' implies an even more firm and citrusy hoppiness, and what is more, it is the third interesting experiment by this enthusiastic microbrewery in a row - Malcroys clearly is one of those hidden gems in present-day Belgium that deserves more exposure.

Black IPA brewed with white cedar wood chips in the mash (less common than red cedar, but I cannot say I’ve seen either of them feature in beer very often). Thanks to Kevin, the brewer, for sharing! Thin and open, pale beige ring for a head, blackish robe wth thin mahogany edges. Expressive aroma of lots of melting bitter chocolate, candle wax and strong pine resin which I suppose represent the white cedar, dried grapefruit peel, fresh thyme, spruce wood, valerian flowers and even sweaty feet (weirdly). Sweetish onset, figs with a faint dash of black olive-like umami, medium carb, supple and oily mouthfeel; walnut, toasty and bitter-chocolatey malt profile, the roasted bitter finish accentuated by long and daring, powerful quinine-like hop bitterness, very piney and peppery, accentuated by the cedar wood – which adds a weird, but fascinating wax- or even paraffin-like aroma. I think it’s a great idea to support this beer genre’s natural bitterness and ‘pineyness’ by actually using a conifer element in the mash, this is original to say the least, especially within a Belgian context. That weird sweaty feet aspect in the nose could have been toned down a bit, but the wax-like aspect makes this beer very distinct and something of an acquired taste among black IPAs. Fascinating.

The first bottled beer by this brand new microbrewery in Kontich near Antwerp, set up by Kevin Devos, owner of The Beer Shop (obviously the first, and so far only, distribution channel of this beer). I have known Kevin personally for several years and considering his enthusiasm in craft beer, it should come as no surprise that he was going to come up with his own home made beer some day - and that this beer was going to be anything but traditional. In this case, he opted for a black IPA, but added wheat malt to the bill and spiced it up with grains of paradise, an African plant related to ginger, with seeds that have been used in beer (and outside of beer too) for centuries. Comes from a longneck bottle with simple label mentioning little more than brewery, ingredients and ABV, but with a personalized crown cap showing the Malcroy logo - this must be one of the rarest crown caps on the market, surely I can make some or other crown cap collector very happy with it... Anyway: irregularly but tightly membrane-like lacing, medium thick, mousy, pale greyish beige, opening head leaving just a flat 'island' of foam in the middle but retaining very well around the edge; black robe, but put under bright light, a deep, warm, pure and clear ruby hue becomes visible. Aroma of iced coffee and coffee powder from a bag, toasted walnuts, burnt brown bread and even a touch of charcoal, black peppercorns - in this case almost certainly representing the grains of paradise, hard toffee, chewing tobacco, quite strong iron (iron shavings even), old raisins, faint background hints of liquorish, brown soap, butter, mud and nutmeg. Restrained sweetishness in the onset, just a dash of raisin and a touch of dried blackberries, light teriyaki-like umami side and - quite outspoken in this case - a 'dim' sourish undercurrent stretching through the whole, possibly related to the wheat that has been used here. Carbonation remains soft (a good thing in this case), mouthfeel is quite full and oily; thoroughly nutty, toasty and lightly caramelly maltiness, slick, only very subdued in sweetness with more emphasis on toasty bitterness yet nowhere too harshly so; clear grains of paradise spiciness in the end, somewhere in between the toastiness of the malts and the bitterness of the hops, and in fact - as was probably the intention - accentuating the spiciness of the hops a bit. Leafy, cedar- and vaguely grapefruit peel-like hop character, only faintly aromatic really, remaining all too mild for anything labelled as an IPA; the toasted bitterness of the malts, however, do provide a lasting, more 'rounded' and mouth-filling bitterness which survives the hops in the end. I would label this a dry stout much rather than a BIPA, for which it lacks in both New World hop aromatics (preferably of the piney and / or citrusy kind) and downright hop bitterness. That said, however, it is quite rare for a new Belgian brewery to opt for this style to begin with especially for a first beer, and that alone deserves attention; it is equally important to stress that Kevin brews every drop of every one of his beers himself, no outsourcing or gypsy brewing here, and that this beer is completely free of technical flaws. That latter fact alone deserves an extra point my book, though I maintain that with a more generous hop dosage and more 'thorough' dry-hopping, this Gunnison can indeed easily be turned into a full-fledged, high quality 'Cascadian dark' ale.

Pours black, medium creamy, tanned head. Smell is mild hoparomatic. Roasty, and creamy. Cedar grows stronger as it warms up. Taste is full, roasty, intense, creamy, tad sweet. Recognizable cedar wood when cold, stronger as it warms up. Very good body, and I just love the balance !

I Draught /I Dark beige head over jet-black beer. Wood, liquorice, spruce, cedar - because I know it - charcoal and waffle syrup. Cedar (this time obvious), dry, charcoal, some faint restsugars, and dry hops - difficult to pinpoint. Chewy, possibly feeling better bodied than it really is. Nice! Would be superb with Sorachi Ace IMHO.