Commissioned BIPA brewed at Anders. Very dark burgundy colour, not entirely black, hazy, under a cream lacing, regular, fairly thick, yellow beige head. Clearly ’Belgian’ but original, attractive and pleasant aroma of nettles and other garden weeds, red apple, beef stock, salmiac, Belgian chocolates but lightly so, green peppercorns, honey, candi syrup, rose hip tea, eucalyptus, bananas with brown sugar, treacle, cinnamon, hints of coffee grounds and peppermint. Crisp onset, brambleberries, red apple, pineapple, good balance of sweetish and sourish with spritzy carbo; smooth and fairly light (not to say thinnish) malt character with Belgian ’yeasty spiciness’ on top, caramelly, bit nutty, with a bitter roasted accent in the end, almost becoming a bit coffeeish but then - as is the intention in a black IPA - stopped by hops, which assume a weedy, leafy, lightly peppery and earthy character, bittering but only gently so, allowing a lot of the caramel malt sweetness to flow through into the throat; a dash of warming, ’jenever’-like alcohol is there but does not burn or become astringent at any point. Very ’European’ interpretation of the style, lacking the ’citrusness’ and agressive hoppiness of many American examples and remaining sweet and malty, so one could argue this needs more hoppiness; still, the aroma is hugely enjoyable, sweetly perfumed and of the type I could sniff for hours - and to me, this makes up for the rather soft hop character. Not considering truth to style, this is a lovely beer without any obvious flaws, delicate and carefully made, and so far the best black IPA from Belgium in my opinion. But then, there aren’t many examples around here of course, I can only hope this kind of beers inspire other brewers to get to work with this fascinating beer style. Well done, Bieradviseur!