Bottle from Leftfield beer. It pours clear dark ruby with a bubbly off-white head. The aroma is super fruity, tangy, loads of berries, raisin, sultana, dried fig, cherry, raisin, sultana, toasted fruit cake, white grape, brandy soaked oak, touch of green veg and walnut. The taste is dry, tart, tangy, vinous, raisin, sultana, cherry, currants, figgy pudding, dandelion & burdock, brandy soaked oak, vinous, walnuts, tannin, slightly chewy, caramelised sugar, touch of banana bread and mellow boozey warmth through the finish. Medium body and fine carbonation. Nice depth of fruit to it. Interesting sipper. You b thin, maybe. Fun nonetheless.

It has been ages since I last ticked a new Struise beer - the pioneering craft brewery in Belgium in the (post)modern sense of the word - but this sounded interesting: a session version of their DIPA Shark Pants, seemingly in an attempt to seek connection with the current trend in lowering alcohol content in beer - ironically perhaps, considering they have produced some of continental Europe's strongest beers in a not so distant past. Weirdly though, they apply a "best before" date of two years after the bottling date to it, which seems quite long for an ISA these days - but we will see, because my sample, obtained from their webshop, is now almost two years old... Very thin, loosely knit, open, off-white head with some flat 'islands' of foam in the middle, rather quickly dissolving over a misty marmalade-blonde robe with amberish tinge. Aroma of old bread crust, petrichor, unsalted peanuts, fresh mugwort leaf, old dried grapefruit peel, toasted onion, vague hint of old-fashioned brown soap, cement, natural rubber in the background, dry straw, dry tree leaves, persimmon. Dryish onset in all, but still basic fruitiness vaguely reminiscent of persimmon and wrinkled autumn apple, minerally carb (more than expected based on looks), somewhat resinous, smooth mouthfeel. Malty middle with upcoming hop bitterness, peanutty and a bit toasty, bread-crusty, dry cookie-like, while said hops increase in wormwoody, peppery, dried-out-citrus-peely bitterness, hinting at tonic water and grapefruit zest but in a 'muffled' kind of way - probably because the aromas have largely faded by now, of course. The bitterness remains altogether milder than I was anticipating, but has a nice wormwoody quality to it which seems now completely outdated. Indeed, from the very first pour I was suspecting something really oldschool here, and that is what I got: the West Coast stubbornness of Shark Pants reduced to a lower ABV, but still kicking. My sample was already past its prime (though not literally past its "best before" date), but it still reflected the earliest days of session IPA, when it was still completely rooted in the West Coast idiom - because New England IPA simply did not exist yet. In this Light Pants too, it is as if the whole "haze revolution" in IPA never happened - a remarkable feat, but then Struise itself was founded well before it happened, and given that IPAs were never their forte, it should come as no surprise that when they do make one, it is going to be a very old-fashioned one. So old-fashioned even that I think most craft beer youngsters today are even too young to understand this... This one gets me all nostalgic about the earlier days of U.S. style craft brewing - have an extra point for that alone. I actually enjoyed this beer a lot for pure nostalgic reasons - and I am not ashamed to admit I love nostalgia - so my rating will probably end up significantly higher than the average here... Just too bad for the total lack of head retention, though.

Troebel donkergeel bier met schuim. Smaak is licht bitterzoet met wat abrikoos, perzik en vanille. Heel fijn bier.

Bottle from Leftfield. It pours clear deep/dark brown with a small bubbly khaki head. The aroma is sweet - sour, tangy, vinous, loads of dried fruits and berries, brown bread, vanilla, bourbon soaked oak, cacao nibs, banana bread and fruit cake. The taste is initially dry and wood, toasted oak, bourbon soaked barrel, tangy, vinous, raisin, sultana, cherry, date, dried frig, raspberry, quite jammy, restrained alcohol, touch of tannin, cacao nibs and some fizzy cola bottles. Finish is dry and tannic. Medium -fulsome body and fine carbonation. Nice depth of flavour; very fruity and vinous. Interesting, but not my favourite of the series.

Deep brown with very minimal tan head. Big booze notes, sweet caramel, sharp berries. Body is a bit thin. Finishes with some berry and loads of booze. This isn’t very good.