Tom (2085) ticked Kroost Hoppig Blond from Kroost Craft Beer 4 years ago
tderoeck (22711) reviewed Kroost Hoppig Blond from Kroost Craft Beer 6 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 4.5
1/II/20 - 33cl can @ nieuwjaarsreceptie Gentse Biervereniging, BB: 15/I/22 (2020-107) Thanks to everyone for sharing all today’s beers!
Clear blond yellow beer, small creamy white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: malty start, bit fruity, some mango, banana. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: pretty sweet, bit metallic, fruity, banana peel, unpleasant bitterness, hint of pineapple. Aftertaste: bitter, grassy, a weird kind of acidity, bit infected? Don’t like it. Too bad, cause I was really pleasantly surprised by the first batch, brewed at Boelens.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Kroost Hoppig Blond from Kroost Craft Beer 6 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
New self-proclaimed ‘beer company’ in the Nekkersputstraat in my town of Ghent – a family enterprise I have the impression, as the word ‘kroost’ refers to one’s children and this word is also used for the company itself. The sample I got was a first batch brewed at Boelens, but apparently the commissioner really wanted to have it brewed in the city of Ghent and therefore turned to BeerSelect for the second batch, a new ‘Proef’brouwerij-inspired plant in Ghent, intentionally aimed at these amateur brewers trying to reach a larger audience with the ‘offspring’ of their brewing attempts. Snow white, mousy, thick, large- but even-bubbled, closed and stable head on a pure, clear and warm ‘old gold’ coloured beer with very lively, cava-like sparkling throughout; misty with sediment. Aroma of withering field flowers, straw, green banana, white bread, unripe pear, soggy bird seed, freshly cut thistles and other weeds, soap, baking soda, green kiwi. Crisp, fizzy onset, non-sugary sweetish with notes of halfripe banana, Conference pear and some apple, very spritzy carbonation yet still refraining from stinging overly harshly; slick and smooth cereally pale malt sweetishness, white-bready and straightforward with gentle floral hop notes (sweetclover) with a grassy side to it, providing only very soft bitterness. A sweet apple note lingers, even a bit annoyingly so, along with a light soapy aspect. Easygoing, generic but quite elegant Belgian blonde clearly aimed at a non-geeky audience and intended as an alternative to the familiar ‘pintje’ – adding little to even the Ghent beer scene (and I sincerely fear a whole lot more of these will appear in the coming time now that BeerSelect is fully operational), but I can imagine the young families living in the Nekkersputstraat and its surrounding neighbourhood can enjoy this and it’s a sympathetic initiative, in all. Technically certainly very correct too, but I would have hesitated in dubbing this a ‘hoppy’ blonde whereas in reality, this is hardly hoppier than the average sweet Belgian blonde – I would certainly recommend the people behind Kroost to amplify this aspect if they want any credibility in a more educated beer audience. However, coincidentally the new BeerSelect version crossed my path too meanwhile (thanks to the commercial manager of BeerSelect) and admittedly that version has a much more 'vivid', elegant and bright Citra hops profile to it, even if the bitterness is not necessarily stronger; clearly this second version has a more modern flair to it and is more deserving of the 'hoppy blonde' moniker. I have adapted my rating here to this second version.
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
24/XII/19 - 33cl bottle from De Hopduvel (Gent), shared @ home, BB: 12/V/21 - (2019-2199)
Clear blond beer, big fizzy irregular and slightly aery head, unstable, falls down quickly. Aroma: lots of lychee, bit floral, some orange peel. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: nice bitterness, fruity, quite some grapefruit, orange peel, some tropical fruits, canned peaches. Aftertaste: fruity, lychee, bit malty, some grains, hay, cow fodder, some grapefruit, very nice one, quite a nice surprise!