Every brewery in Belgium, large to tiny and hypercommercial to hyper-artisanal, needs to have a nablab these days - it seems that every few years or so, a new hype comes along for less alcoholic beers (thank God we got rid of that Radler hype, now that I come to think of it) but this one seems here to stay. This is Verzet's contribution, a (practically) non-alcoholic hazy IPA of sorts. Medium sized, cobweb-lacing, egg-white, somewhat creamy and stable head on a hazed ochre-blonde beer with pale orangey glow. Aroma of freshly cut grass, soggy white bread, unripe green melon, moist white pepper, carambola, something distantly minty, flashes of pineapple, green mango, basil, honey. Crisp onset, restrained in sweetness with hop-fruity notes of starfruit and unripe mango but subduedly so, vague apricot somewhere, minerally undertone partially coming from lively carbonation - but with evidently rather thin (I would almost say watery) mouthfeel. Slender white-bready and bread crumb-like pale maltiness in the middle, under this somehow restrainedly tropical hop aroma, but quickly shifting to full-fledged, leafy, peppery, wormwoody hop bitterness filling the finish and lasting for a long time, in a notably spicy way - much stronger than the second 2024 Brigade beer, their other non-alcoholic IPA. In comparison with that one, intended for their Brigade members only, this one lacks the lush hop aromas one can nowadays expect from a nablab IPA - aromas which could have made this one so much more interesting. They are present, sure, but in a rather faint and distant way, so to my personal liking, they deserve much more exposure. Other than that, this is a fine alternative to the often dreary alcohol-free blondes that were around before the hype started - but the stakes are high these days, and the same thing can be said of a lot of contemporary Belgian (and foreign) nablabs. Clean, refreshing and pleasant enough, but after that very different and much more convincing Brigade version, this is a bit of a letdown for me. That said, I am not the biggest fan of this weird hype anyway - and this one certainly is among the better, more characterful examples of it, no doubt about that.

Flaska från Etre Gourmet. Citrussmak utan att vara så syrlig, torr, lätt, bergamott, te. Lite samma stuk som mycket alkoholfriöl dvs smakar lite maltsoda. Trevlig sommardryck.

Не ах

Belgian strong blonde brewed by Verzet for Belgian metalband Stake – in the still relatively young but thriving commercial tradition of bands with their own beer brands, and this band just happens to like Duvel apparently, prompting Verzet to take on this much-exposed Belgian style… Very curious about that. Thick, snow white, large-bubbled, foamy, shred-lacing head over an initially clear orange-golden robe, turning misty with sediment. Aroma alas strongly dominated by DMS (overcooked broccoli), otherwise displaying lightly toasted cereals, ‘jenever’, halfripe apricot, old bread crust, some banana, persimmon, dirty rubber tyres somewhere. Fruity, sweetish, cleanish onset, hints of peach and banana in a smooth way, touch of green pear, sharply carbonated (as can be expected from the intended style) with very minerally effect. Lean, slick mouthfeel, cereally, ‘heated’ malt-like core, less ‘light’ and bready than the average ‘edelbier’ (as this beer substyle was called by OBP back in the eighties and nineties). Lingering banana and residual-honey-sugary sweetness with retronasal DMS, a mild dosage of floral hops and warming whisky-like alcohol constitute the finish. Credible as an ‘edelbier’, if some macro-brewery with a much more ‘conventionally commercial’ mind than Verzet would have produced it - but I am very sensitive to DMS and found the finish a bit on the crude and boozy side when compared with some of the established examples in this range (Duvel, Hapkin, Satan variants, Sloeber, Filou, former Judas and so on), which has never fully been my personal cup of tea anyway. That said, I guess the commissioner is happy, because it does taste like just that kind of beer, no doubt about that. Verzet seems capable of mimicking the macro brewing idiom better than I thought…

Alcohol free hazy IPA by Verzet, who is dabbling in NABLAB beers just like any other brewery in this country lately – with this one apparently being a special offering for their ‘Brigadiers’ (members of the beer club surrounding the brewery), the second one of 2024 even. Thanks tderoeck for sharing. Huge, foamy, snow white, cobweb-lacing, stable head on a misty yellow-blonde robe with khaki tinge. Aroma of fresh guava, white peaches, ripe pineapple, Durondeau pear, pepino, raw cucumber, fresh dough. Crisp onset with stingy carb (too sharply so for the intended style, NABLAB or not), with some green pear, peach and guava aspects, before slipping into a smooth cereally, doughy pale maltiness carrying a huge deal of aromatic hoppiness on its back, full-on tropical with an exotically citric edge – honey pomelo, guava, pineapple all unfold as in any decent ‘alcoholic’ NEIPA. As if this is not enough, a peppery, drying hop bitterness follows, more so than is typical in NEIPA perhaps, but very pleasant. Quenching and enjoyable – but more than that, remarkably credible, this ‘imitates’ the NEIPA style very well without the alcohol; better than expected even, and had it been a bit softer in carbonation, I would even consider it the very best NABLAB-IPA I had to date.