Imperial stout (a ‘dark’ one as the label redundantly specifies!) brewed by Hoevebrouwers in Zottegem and part of a series of barrel aged stouts commissioned by a whisky club in Bruges (BWC). This one is already the fourth in this series apparently, at a volume of only 190 l (about 575 steinie bottles) in total; it was aged on barrels of Buffalo Trace (American bourbon), but also partially on barrels of the whisky club’s own single malt whisky (Ryggia). Thanks Craftmember for sharing. Medium thick, dense, greyish off-white, stable head, very dark chocolate brown robe with burgundy glow – but still translucent under daylight, so not really looking like an imperial stout. Aroma of fresh vanilla-scenting oak wood and a lot of it, caramel, wood glue, varnish-like solvents, liquorice, bourbon, raisin bread, candied fig, toffee. Sweet, rounded, rather cleanish onset, medium carbonated, hints of ripe pear, raisin, date and medlar all sprinkled with brown sugar, slick body, full but not oily, though a tad glueish perhaps; caramelly maltiness with a blood-like iron accent at the edges, candi sugar, some brown bread with – tucked away at the back – only a very light coffee aspect, but no true roasted bitterness. Instead, boozy sweet bourbon, vanilla-like oak and liquorice- and even slightly clove-like spiciness unfold, together with a herbal hop bitterish note and a considerable amount of solventy effects (wood glue, fresh paint) which remain rather dominant. Being the traditionally oriented Belgian style brewery that they are, I do not have the impression that Hoevebrouwers have a good understanding of what an imperial stout actually is; if anything, this is a Belgian strong dark ale, with quadrupel- to Scotch-like features but nothing truly stout-like… Too bad, and point off for missing the intended style, but with some ageing, I think this beer does have some potential, as it does not show any off-flavours or other noticeable errors either. It is just not what it promises in terms of style and this will be a bit disappointing to many craft beer geeks, in my opinion. Still enjoyable enough to give the other ones in this series a try, though.

Bottle from Delhaize. Hazy orange, thin, frothy, white head. Aroma of overripe mandarin, apricot, old apple, honey, clove, soap. Taste has sweet mandarin, apricot & plum over a honey-malty base, bit bready with a soapy note. Floral hoppy finish, spicy bitter, sourish too, a vague mandarin peel hint but sweet apricot lingers as well. Medium body, slick texture, average carbonation. Perfectly drinkable Belgian Ale but erase the 'IPA' label, please. The name is also a tell-tale sign that they didn't mean serious 'craft' business here.

7/XI/21 - 33cl bottle @ Akke’s place, BB: VII/2023, Lot 21271 (2021-1254) Thanks to Akke for sharing the bottle!

Pretty clear orange beer, big solid creamy yellowish head, stable, adhesive, leaving a nice lacing in the glass. Aroma: very floral, soapy impression, very yeasty, lots of ripe banana. MF: lively carbon, medium body. Taste: all ripe banana, very yeasty, bit sweet, fruity touch, slightly sour. Aftertaste: very sweet, yeasty, more banana, slightly bitter, fruity touch, sweet, bit sugary, caramel.

From Tombola @Bles

Belgian IPA by Hoevebrouwers in Zottegem, bottle from – I believe – a supermarket in Ghent, but cannot remember which one exactly. Cobweb-lacing, egg-white, thick and dence, hops-enhanced, rocky head on a deep, initially clear ‘old golden’ robe with lively visible sparkling, turning misty and ochre-tinged with sediment. Aroma of old onions and withering leek, old bread crust, armpit sweat, old cheese rind, banana, cloves, minerals, camphor accent, herb cheese beginning to go ‘off’, oxidized apple slices. Fizzy onset, lots of sharp and even numbing overcarbonation, fruity banana sweetishness piercing through along with hints of red apple and green pear; slick cereally pale maltiness, minerally effects from carbonation continuing, slight honeyish sweetishness on top. Ends with a long, leafy and peppery hop bitterness, having turned a bit cheesy too as well as withered leek-like, going along with clove-like phenols, yeasty fruitiness and something metallic in the background. Typical example of a Belgian ale brewer in the traditional vein trying to be up to date by adding a hoppy blonde to his range and labelling it as an IPA because this term sells well. Other than being ‘unintentionally’ Belgian, if you get my drift, this is also a bit flawed, with the large dosage of hops not being in prime condition – though storage on a shop shelf has likely contributed to this effect, so I will not be too harsh on this one. Not an IPA, though, but I was not expecting one either, being familiar with this brewery’s output.

Dark brown colour, beige foam. Nose of chocolate, stone fruit, caramel. Taste is light sweet, some roasted malts, light tart.

Blonde ale flavoured with hemp, brewed since the summer of 2019 with hemp cultivated by De Bronne, a hemp and cattle farm in Herzele ('Flemish Ardennes') run by a Mathieu Hendrickx and his wife. Hemp has of course been cultivated for ages and for many reasons, including fibres and bird seed, but also as a soft drug (marijuana) so it should come as no surprise that the beer's name refers to the latter (the international marijuana holiday, April 20th), even though De Bronne obviously does not cultivate it for recreational purposes - the beer does not contain any psychedelic substances, which would be forbidden by law anyway. This is not the first attempt to make a cannabis beer without the drug effects, not even in Belgium, see e.g. Vliegende Paard's Cannahopper and - older still - Hopperd's Cannabier, so I wonder what the purpose of this 0420 is... Anyway: eggshell-white, frothy, very mousy, cobweb-lacing, thick and stable head on an initially lightly misty peach blonde beer with vague orangey tinge, turning cloudy orange blonde with sediment. Quite distinct, weird but not necessarily inviting aroma of cloves, rosewater, allspice even, sweet-herbal and perfumey clearly from the cannabis flowers that were used here, over a background of green tea, dry straw, white bread, halfripe banana, cold pumpkin soup, stewed carrots, elderberry leaves or even elderblossom (the cannabis returning, I guess), exotic green peppercorns of some kind, old gingerbread, moist white pepper, parsnip, chicken broth touch (a sign of oxidation - I may have kept this one aside for a bit too long), eucalyptus, 'drop', green cough syrup - but again, the last three are probably the cannabis talking again. Sweetish onset with thinly sourish edge, very vaguely citrusy but adding impressions of dried peach, halfripe banana and freshly cut red apple as well, lively carbonated in a typically 'Belgian' manner and not stinging too harshly; slick, supple body, cereally maltiness with a certain (white-)bready edge and something very thinly caramelly as well, a tad oxidized already, sweetish but not overly so, aromatized by the hemp in a very herbal way, again reminiscent of green tea, cloves, green 'drop' and even eucalyptus - very flowery, in a way, but not quite evoking that typical smell of, well, a joint. Minerally aspects from the carbonation remain till the end, where a floral hop bitterness also operates, suffering under this heavy ethereal-herbal load; slight bready-yeasty and more obnoxious phenolic aspects (the latter mingling with the hemp effects) show up in the end as well. Some hop bitterness lingers, but that goes for residual, honeyish sugars as well, and the (female) hemp flower effects accentuate the sweetness rather than any bitterness. Quite a mess, if you ask me: I do not do soft drugs to begin with so even in its non-psychedelic way, this beer was never meant to appeal to me personally, but the main issue I have here is that it remains sweet, flowery and perfumey without ever truly reminding of the hemp plant at all. Granted, this flowery and perfumey effect cannot be ascribed to anything else than the use of hemp blossoms, but it could just as well have been a combo of meadowsweet, yarrow, green peppercorns, cloves, liquorice and / or something else as well, at least to the beer taster not particularly trained in distinguishing between the many herbs and spices that are used in beer nowadays. I never liked overly spiced beers to begin with and this is really very heavily spiced - or 'aromatized', put more accurately; it ends too sweet and its general structure remains too simplistic for me. Even if the hemp plant is botanically closely related to hops, after several hemp-flavoured beers I remain unconvinced that Cannabis sativa in any form - no doubt even including its psychotropic properties - was meant to be used in beer at all. An ill-fated idea, all things considered, executed in a very mediocre way. Not my beer at all - I even had trouble finishing it due to this extreme herbalness, which automatically sets the score well below 6/10 for me.