Beer made by Barcelona-based BIIR at the Brewerkz micro brewery in Singapore. A dubbel, usually malt-forward beers, so I am curious about the ’hoppy’ part of the name. Pours a dark rusty copper colour with orangey hue, hazy, under a dense, lacing, moussy, yellowish tan head. Pleasantly aromatic: lots of sweet cookie dough (not unlike a Scotch ale), milk chocolate, fresh orange, caramel candy, grapefruit peel, marshmallows, hints of coffee grounds, banana, port, toasted bread, liquorice, pine wood, coriander. Sweet onset of raisins, banana, candied orange, pear; candi syrup touch as well, with a creamy, somewhat oily, resinous mouthfeel and soft carbonation. Big maltiness ensues, with a pleasant caramel and somewhat toasted character, resinous and drying and somewhat ’sticky’ spice effect (coriander seed), gentle but quite insisting roasted bitter accent paired with bittering, leafy, peppery hops with a somewhat piney and even citrussy, aromatic touch as well. This resinous ’double’ bitterness lingers along with caramelly malt sweetness after swallowing, in good balance with each other. Indeed hoppier and therefore a lot more bitter than your average (Belgian style) dubbel and in that sense a bit unusual, but a pleasant beer nonetheless.

Bottle 375ml #400/3800 @ Patricks Pub og Restaurant, Kristiansand
Pours hazy red with a pink head. Aroma has notes of malt, cellar, cherry, funk, blueberries and raspberries. Taste is medium to heavy sweet and light to medium sour with a long dry, cherry, fruity, funky and raspberry finish. Body is medium, texture is oily, carbonation is soft. Just a little to sweet and could be a bit more sour, but still very nice.

Bottle 750ml #602/2700 @ Patricks Pub og Restaurant, Kristiansand
Pours clear golden with a white head. Aroma has notes of malt, barnyard, funk, citrus, gooseberries and other fruits. Taste is light to medium sweet and light to medium sour with a long slightly dry, funky and fruity finish. Body is medium, texture is thin to oily, carbonation is soft. The nose kind of reminds me of 3 Fonteinen and the taste is more like a Boon. A very well made gueuze I just wish it were a bit more sour.

Bottle from De Hopduvel. Red colour, some white foam. Medium carbonation. Sweet flavour of candy, raspberries and sweet cherries. Tart notes from lambic. Also some lemon. Too sweet for me, bit artificial.

Bottle, 375 ml, at Patricks. A murky reddish beer with a minimal sized pinkish head. There’s lots of cellar in the aroma, a good dash of sweet cherries and generic red berries. Tending towards blueberry. Some white sugar too. The flavor is quite sweet, still it is quite dry on the palate. Dark, red berries, cellar, some sourness and barnyard. Full body, very smooth. Lasting berry finish. A bit sweetish this one, but damn fine anyway. 150524

Bottle, 75cl. At Patricks. Quite clear in the glass, golden in color and with a small, dense, white head on top. The aroma is pretty lovely, with barnyard, hay, lemon peel, some grapefruit, horse blanket and some wheat malts. It’s not as sour as expected, still far from sweet, even though there’s something in it reminiscent of white sugar. It’s quite fruity too, pear perhaps, with lemon, barnyard funk and hay, grapefruit zest and old cellar. It’s full to medium bodied, with an appropriate carbonation level, nice sourness and a pleasant dryness. Lasting finish. A lovely beer indeed, even though it tastes too much of sugar. 150524

Black. Roasted, bitter malts in aroma. Flavour has a mild bitterness from the roasted malts and a stronger more bitter whack from it’s heavy hopping.

375mL bottle, pours an opaque dark pinkish burgundy with a small pinkish head. Nose is sweet and sour, with lots of cherries and raspberries, some sweetness, oak and funk. Flavour follows accordingly, with sweet and sourness both. It's surprising that this doesn't have added sugars, as there is quite a bit of residual sweetness here - unusual for a lambic. Very fruity, medium sweetness, and pretty low sourness for the style. Very nice stuff, but I'd be hard-pressed to call this a lambic.

Huge dense cream-coloured head over clear, pure copper beer. Fruity nose, citrus, orange, cake (fruitcake - no pun intended), rosewater. Quite bitter, resins, even quinine. Some cakey malts underneath; orangepeel, kumquat. Long lasting resiny bitterness backthroat. Resiny-sticky, bit burning MF. Quite well bodied, oily. A tad crude, but a winner for those looking for the harsh IPA style; might well be the most authentic Westcoast IIPA made in Belgium.