Not the first saison Dok dedicated to one of their permanent employees, a new version hopped with Jester and the more familiar Fuggles; from tap at Kantien at the Watersportbaan. Very moussey, egg-white, thick and frothy head over a misty ochre-tinged golden blonde robe. Aroma of spiced crackers, minerals, herbes de Provençe, abbey cheese rind, white pepper, fresh raw potato, cereals. Painfully numbing overcarbonation - as is apparently still all too often the case in beers tapped by Dok itself (or at Dok-owned Kantien in this case) - distracting from the actual flavours and adding too much stingy minerality even for a saison; elements of green pear, cucumber and unripe peach shyly pierce through this onslaught of carbon dioxide. Cereally cracker-like, grainy core, smooth and straightforward pale maltiness, slowly bittered by leafy, spicy, long-stretched hoppiness, resinous and drying, bringing retronasal notes of grass and again those dry old 'herbes de Provençe'. Very classically styled saison - or dry Belgian blonde, because what is the difference anyway - but too overcarbonated to be judged properly. I guess I will have to revisit this one from a can.

NEDIPA by Dok in collaboration with Fauve, the best known of the new craft breweries in Paris; can at Kantien, which is owned by Dok. Medium sized, egg-white, fluffy, opening head on a cloudy yolk-yellow robe with pale beige tinge. Aroma of ripe pineapple, green mango, honey pomelo, dough, demi-sec wine, light papaya, mandarin chutney, dried lemonbalm, yellow kiwi, gin but also old and dusty 'herbes de Provençe'. Very juicy onset, sweet-fruity but not exaggeratedly so, hinting at pomelo, starfruit and a bit of guava; sharpish carb (too much for this style even), rounded doughy malt sweet core steeped in honeyish Phantasm powder effects amplifying radiant mango, guava and pomelo aromas and making the 'hop fruitiness' effectively more lively, while the hops as such also provide a welcoming spicy bitter note in the finish. Some warming, gin-like alcohol is present too, but does not interfere with the flavours. Accomplished hazy IPA, perhaps a bit 'predictable' by doing things the way NEDIPA works nowadays and nothing else, but very well constructed and very enjoyable - I am even looking forward to emptying the can I have at home, in spite of being a rather 'cool lover' of the genre.

The second version of a Dok sour I missed in its first version - so I cannot compare between the two, but from what I read on their social media, this 'II' is nothing but a second batch of the same beer (compensating for the immense success the first batch apparently enjoyed), implying that it should be aliased to the original. Can from the Delhaize supermarket at the Sterre. Tiny-bubbled, pale pinkish-tinged off-white, moussey and dense, opening but stable head over an initially clear, beautifully deep ruby red robe with carmine glow, turning misty and even 'deeper red' in the end. Aroma of indeed raspberries - in enormous quantities, fresh red raspberries, raspberry juice, even a bit of raspberry bush, intense but nevertheless very natural, completely overshawoding much more shy hints of white bread, dry cereals, kefir, bitter dandelion leaf, green apple and white yoghurt. Tart onset in a rounded, fruity, spritzy way, lemony but immediately intensified by the natural acids in the raspberries, which come up in a completely 'real' way - as if drinking raspberry juice homemade from ripe raspberries harvested in one's own garden. Each sip means ingesting a truckload of red raspberries in liquid form - man this must be a healthy drink... Carbonation remains sharpish and minerally, piercing through it all in a crystalline way, almost adding a sparkling water flavour - as if blending the aforementioned homemade raspberry juice with soda. Thin and sleek wheatiness runs underneath, though, very discreetly reminding one that this is still beer - a fruit beer alright, but recognisable as beer, however subtly so. Green leaf and dried flower elements appear retronasally, but everything remains tied to the lactic acid tartness and the natural flavours (sour and sweet) of a heap of real, freshly picked red raspberries. The most genuinely raspberry-like raspberry beer I ever had - again, this is like drinking actual fresh raspberry juice... Calling this 'framboise' would only distract from its raspberry juice character - I guess it can be called a kind of Berliner Weisse with "Himbeere" flavour, in itself as classic as it gets, but in a very different, much more natural way than what is traditionally done in Berlin. Very summery, light-bodied, elegant and joyful drink, but I would not have minded a more 'beery' undertone...

Decent. Not a huge fan of the Shiso but it is a good adjunct for this porter.

Pretty decent

Fresh hop Baltic porter - one does not see the 'fresh hop' method in black beers very often - made at Dok in collaboration with Põhjala, Estonia's leading craft brewery, perhaps best known for reviving the old Baltic porter style. Can from the Delhaize supermarket at the Watersportbaan in Ghent. Thick and dense, creamy, mocha beige, shred-lacing, thinning and eventually all but dissolving head over a black robe with very thin mahogany brown edge. Aroma of unsugared black chocolate, wet leather, toasted walnuts, black pepper, charcoal, bayleaf, whisky, dry tree leaves, warm roux, black tea, dry caramel, salmiak. Dark-fruity onset, dried blueberry and dried fig notes, restrained in sweetness, finely tingling yet still very active effervescence not disturbing a full, smooth, oily mouthfeel. Layers of black-chocolatey, toasted-nutty and charred-bready malts, remaining of only subdued sweetness - especially when compared with many Põhjala classics in the genre - with a roasty bitter finish further bittered by floral, leafy, peppery hops, fresh perhaps but the actual freshness is a bit eclipsed by all that dark, roasty maltiness, of course (which is probably why you will find fresh-hopping more often in blonde IPA type beers), warmed by whisky-like alcohol but not in a harsh way at all. Feels quite straightforward and oldskool, no unnecessary frills but straight to the point in a very effective, technically perfectly executed, focused manner: I like that. A lot.