Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Pours very light, clear strawyellow blonde. Very big white head ( nearly 85 % of the glass ), but consisting of big bubbles so fades very fast. Smell is bit bitter, grassy/spicy hops, very low intensity though. Taste is sharp, intense grains, some Belgian yeast ( sticky sweetness, some esthers, mild phenols ) rather bitter. Lots of the taste goes lost by the sufficient overcarbonation of the beer. I thought I had seen this as an Imperial IPA on here, but seems to be wrong. i wanted to comment this is more in the style of Duvel, but that seems to be the category it's placed in by both Brewer and Ratebeer. In it's style, it's very well made though. perhaps a bit lower carbonation might work for the better here, but the overall taste and scent , as well as body seem to be really well done.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5
Imported from my RateBeer account as De Keukenbrouwers Hip Hop Weyninckhoven (by Microbrouwerij De Keukenbrouwers):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 2/5, Taste: 6/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 11/20, MyTotalScore: 2.8/5
12/XI/17 - 33cl bottle from Willems (Grobbendonk) @ home - BB: 30/VII/18 (2017-1875)
Clear pale blond beer with lots of chunks, huge towering fluffy white head, very stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: very oxidized, bit malty, hay, lots of orange peel, bit of mandarins, spicy, bit yeasty, quite some coriander. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: malty start, grains, some citrus, bit watery, sweet touch. Aftertaste: little metallic, soft bitterness, spices, sweet malts, some caramel.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Bottle. Pours rather clear yellow, small to nearly no white head. Smell is not overly intense. bit of apples indeed. Taste is sharp, bit bitter, saison yeast is prominent. faded apple features, ensuring the apple aromatics are natural, and not pushed chemically. On the other hand though, the apple features are a bit weak for a beer specifically named apple tree. bit thin in the body, and too high in carbo for me. OK. Not convinced here, both positive or negative.
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5.5
Bottle from the Prik & Tik in Zele, another IPA by Keukenbrouwers, this time with added oranges. Quite a violent gusher, opening with an agressive hissing sound - and even though, considering previous experiences with this brewery, I was more or less prepared for it, I could not prevent a portion of the beer streaming out of the bottle neck during opening. Initially very loudly crackling, thick and frothy but quickly thinning, 'dirty' egg-white head leaving behind a lot of 'dotty' lacing, eventually settling to a wafer-thin ring and some flat islands in the middle; deep, almost brownish 'dark orange' robe with amberish hue, murky from the start with a dense 'fog' of dead yeast near the bottom of the glass, shifting to an even muddier orange-hued ochre-brown look in the very end. Strong aroma of fresh orange peel and pink grapefruit flesh, orange water, freshly grated ginger, honey, raw celery, soggy old bread, apple sauce, cooked carrots, ripe peach, fresh camomile flowers, lavender soap and quite expressively so, moist white pepper, crêpes Suzette, banana, lime juice, wet soil, spoiled lettuce, lots of spicy phenols. Expectedly very spritzy onset, lots of very minerally, souring carbonation, distracting from the fruity esteriness lurking behind, eventually releasing impressions of (unripe) banana, red apple and unripe peach, only retrainedly sweetish, more sourish possibly due to onsetting infection - with this sourness further accentuated by the overcarbonation, which also coarsens an otherwise 'fluffy', supple mouthfeel. Bready middle with ongoing infectitious sourishness and fruity esters, the breadiness being more and more accentuated by the end as the yeast goes in, ending very 'dirty' and starchy; meanwhile, the hops and the oranges creep up, manifesting themselves as a salvaging factor, bringing retronasal orange peel fraîcheur in a very convincing way, as well as grapefruit flesh, white pepper and bitter Chinese Chrysanthemum tea notes - which also stick to the root of the tongue, as a long, almost 'pale green', spicy bitterness that eventually obliterates a large part of the less pleasant yeasty (overly phenolic as well as estery) flavours. Juiciness, whether from the oranges or not but in any case remarkably 'vivid' and spritzy, lingers along. Well intended, but this... thing confirms my persuasion that these Keukenbrouwers guys are no good from a bottle and seem to be only capable of delivering decent, sometimes even great beers from tap. The contrast between their draught DIPA (at Beerlovers Bar, I believe) and this fruit IPA is so big that if I hadn't known any better, I would have ascribed both beers to different breweries. This Orange Crush is a good idea badly executed - just too many of these new Belgian micro breweries are blatantly lacking in technical skills and experience to create greatness on a larger-than-local level and though these guys are (to Belgian standards) relatively modern in their conceptual approach, they are still stuck in technical incompetence when it comes to bottled beers. The spritzy, fresh oranges and generously aromatic hops hover elegantly yet helplessly over a pool of yeasty, infected, overly Belgian, phenolic mud - this is not what I imagine when I see 'IPA with oranges' on any label. Shame, could have been so much better if they only knew what they are doing.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 4
Imported from my RateBeer account as De Keukenbrouwers Hip Hop Headbanger (by Microbrouwerij De Keukenbrouwers):
Aroma: 6/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 5/10, Palate: 2/5, Overall: 8/20, MyTotalScore: 2.4/5
16/X/17 - 33cl bottle from Willems (Grobbendonk), shared @ home - BB: 27/VIII/19 (2017-1792)
Note: opened with a very loud BANG, SLOW GUSHER ALERT!
Clear orange to blond beer, creamy off-white head, little stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: pronounced yeast, fruity esters, orange peel, bubble gum, bit of banana. MF: very lively carbon, too much to be enjoyable, medium body. Taste: sweet start, bit sourish, lots and lots of alcohol, spicy touch, some coriander, floral touch. Aftertaste: coriander, yeast, spicy, little bitter, sourish finish.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Imported from my RateBeer account as De Keukenbrouwers Hip Hop Coffee Stout (by Microbrouwerij De Keukenbrouwers):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 14/20, MyTotalScore: 3.6/5
16/X/17 - 33cl bottle from Willems (Grobbendonk) @ home - BB: 25/III/19, bottled: 25/III/17 (2017-1789)
Clear dark brown beer, big dense creamy irregular beige head, pretty stable, non adhesive. Aroma: sweetish, lots of CO2, caramel, yeast, soft roast, some ripe banana, sweetish impression. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bit sourish, soft roast, yeasty touch, malty, some coffee indeed. Aftertaste: sourish coffee, little bitter, fruity, yeast, some orange peel, bit roasted, decent.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Imported from my RateBeer account as De Keukenbrouwers Hip Hop Single Hop IPA Amarillo (by Microbrouwerij De Keukenbrouwers):
Aroma: 8/10, Appearance: 3/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 4/5, Overall: 14/20, MyTotalScore: 3.6/5
15/X/17 - 33cl bottle from Willems (Grobbendonk) @ home - BB: 27/VIII/19 (2017-1786)
Little cloudy orange blond beer, solid creamy irregular off-white head, pretty stable, bit adhesive. Aroma: pretty fruity, pineapple, some grapefruit, bit sweetish. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: bit sweet, very malty, some citrus, tropical fruits, bit of yeast. Aftertaste: fruity, lots of orange peel, very bitter finish, dry ending, more grapefruit, bit medicinal bitter after taste.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
Imported from my RateBeer account as De Keukenbrouwers Hip Hop Saison (by Microbrouwerij De Keukenbrouwers):
Aroma: 7/10, Appearance: 4/5, Taste: 7/10, Palate: 3/5, Overall: 12/20, MyTotalScore: 3.3/5
15/X/17 - 33cl bottle from Willems (Grobbendonk) @ home - BB: 18/XI/18 (2017-1785)
Clear orange beer, small creamy white head, little stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: lots of orange peel (?), malty, honey, pretty oxidized, fruity, caramel. MF: lively carbon, medium to light body. Taste: very malty, bit oxidized, orange peel. some citrus, soft bitterness. Aftertaste: bit spicy, some coriander, grassy, citrus touch, bit sourish, fruity notes, orange juice, bit acidic, by not means would this ever be qualified as a saison... another beer style miss from de Keukenbrouwers... Should've just called it blond.
Appearance - 5 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
Hazy pale golden colour, small frothy off-white head, mostly diminishing, minimal lacing. Aroma, malts, light roast, yeast, light citrus. Taste medium sweet and bitter, malty, grainy. Malty sweetbitter aftertaste, spicy notes. Medium body, oily texture, flat carbonation, alcohol well-hidden, refreshing and easy to drink but nothing special.