330ml bottle from Beer Merchants. Hazy very dark brown colour with a huge frothy light tan head, good retention. Aroma: hoppy, citrus/tropical fruit, light roasted malt, chocolate. Taste: same as the aroma, malt comes through a bit more, bitter finish. Mouthfeel is very smooth, moderate carbonation, medium bodied. Sessionable black IPAs are always welcome!

Bottle 330ml. @ [ The Country Stat Improver Tasting ] - Saxo, Aarhus. [ As Marina Black Sea ].[ Courtesy of my Local Swap Summer Santa - 2016 ]. Clear medium to dark brown color with a large, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, beige head. Aroma is moderate malty, roasted, dark malt, moderate hoppy, pine, spruce, soap. Flavor is moderate to light light heavy sweet and moderate bitter with a long duration, soapy, spruce, pine, sweet malt, dark malt. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft. [20161008] 8-4-7-3-15

IPA from a Spanish brewing company which is best known in Belgium for its collabs with Het Nest. No gushing, but still the head is towering high, inches thick even with careful pouring, rocky, bath foam-like, egg-white in colour and very dense, leaving thick patches of ’papery’ lacing on the edges; initially clear, deep amber colour with bright orange hue, turning hazy and almost coppery with sediment. Aroma of lemon-scented soap, kumquat, pink grapefruit peel, biscuit, lavender, cloves, ginger, persimmon, sundried tomato, vermouth, dried mango, roasted pine nuts, dry earth, tree leaves, gin, barbecue sauce, bell pepper, carrot - a mixture of Belgian yeastiness, phenolic and estery, with strong hop fragrance. Vivid onset with an unsurprisingly sharp, minerally, souring and somewhat numbing carbonation attacking hints of dried redcurrant, green banana, unripe peach and gooseberry, sourish with a sweet core blending in with a biscuity, nutty malt backbone, becoming strongly toasted in the end, the bitterness of which not just supports, but almost overpowers the drying, resinous, wormwood- and grapefruit peel-like, actually quite harsh hop bitterness, which lasts for a long time along with retronasal phenols (cloves) and floral and earthy hop notes. A soapy effect remains together with a long, tonic water-ish bitterness, a bready and notably sourish yeastiness and lots of toasted malt bitterness. Something went wrong with fermentation here: though I got no gushing, it is still very difficult to pour this beer without ending up with a head of several inches thick, and this visual feature is doubtlessly connected to the - for this style - highly phenolic, yeasty and very earthy character in nose and mouth, making it very ’Belgian’ in its general make-up. I can accept this as a decent ’Belgian IPA’ - whether this was the intention or not - but I can imagine many people expecting a clean Anglo-Saxon IPA will be disappointed. Still, flavour-wise there is not much wrong with this, this beer shows uncompromizing bitterness and personality, from a longneck bottle with a glossy label depicting a female devil... Unexpected and a bit weird, but enjoyable.

Bottle shared. Very hazy golden with a white head. Aroma of yeast, herbs, light sickly notes and malt. Flavour is light moderate sweet and bitter. Medium bodied with light carbonation.

Bottle shared thanks to kermis. Gusher. Hazy golden with big fluffy white head. Again this lemon and lemon balm that all their beers we tried tonight had, pineapple, light sweet malts, some bitter herbs and hay, soft yeast. Maybe a touch of pineapple Brett. Under medium sweet and light bitter. Just medium bodied with lots of fizzy carbonation.

Bottle shared, minor gusher. Very hazy orange brown with a huge off white head. Aroma of tart lemon, herbs, urinal cake, light caramel and malt. Flavour is light moderate sweet and moderate bitter. Medium bodied with soft carbonation.

Bottle shared thanks to deankerm. Slight gusher. Clear amber with huge fizzy beige head. Lemon juice, caramel, rotten wood, bitter herbs, lime, lemon balm. Under medium sweet and medium bitter. Medium bodied with lots of carbonation.

Bottle shared thanks to kermis. Hazy golden with big fizzy light beige head. Lots of sour lemon juice, bitter grassy hops, some lime and passion fruit, soft bready malts. Light sweet, medium bitter and a lingering puckering tartness. Medium bodied. Like they mixed in straight lemon juice, gives a weird puckering mouthfeel.

Bottle shared. Very hazy amber with a medium off white head. Aroma of lemon, herbs and light malt. Flavour is light sweet and moderate lemon puckering sour. Light to medium bodied with soft carbonation.

7th September 2016
T42 tasting on me Birfaday. Hazy amber beer, good pale tan head. Palate is airy, dry and has reasonable fine carbonation. Soft tangy malts, some tangy caramel. Floral bitterness into mild Mosaic fruits and a little skunk. Airy finish. Decent.