26/VI/21 - 33cl bottle from De Hopduvel (Gent), shared @ Abeel’s, BB: X/2022 (2021-536)

Clear pale yellowish to beige beer, small creamy to aery irregular white head, little stable, non adhesive. Aroma: malty, bit yeasty, some grains. MF: ok carbon, lively carbon, medium body. Taste: sweet start, bit malty, grains, nice bitterness, little fruity, bit soapy, floral. Aftertaste: yeasty, soft bitterness, banana peel, dry, decent, not great.

33 cl. bottle @ home, gift form Dennis and Patries.
Hazy golden with a white head. White candy sugar en fruity yeasty aroma's. Sweet taste with a sweet finish. Decent but would have bene better with more bitterness I think.

Dry-hopped tripel developed by a hobby brewer called Dirk Heroes and at first commercialized by 4Pajot (as (He)Roes Tripel); since early 2019 the production has moved to Craywinckelhof in Lubbeek. Bottle from Streekproductencentrum Halle. Thick, frothy and dense, egg-white, papery lacing, stable head on a misty apricot blonde beer with pale orangey hue. Aroma of melting butter (quite pungently so - a clear sign of diacetyl), ripe pear, white grapes, quite strong DMS (spoiled cabbage soup), young 'jenever', freshly cut chicory leaves, potato peel, wet flour, soap, some band aid-like phenols and melting paraffin. Fruity onset, sweetish but restrainedly so, hints of banana and pear with a sourish undertone, lively carbonated; smooth, bit fluffy mouthfeel. Bready and somewhat doughy, cereally, dryish maltiness with grainy aspects and a buttery diacetyl edge (fortunately far less so than feared based on aroma), but also something soapy and wheaty, bittered by a firm hoppiness but in an earthy, bit rooty way, hardly providing the aroma urgently needed here to counter the retronasal effects of DMS and over-enthusiastic phenols. The alcohol remains better hidden than expected, but then this should be expected at below 8% ABV, which is on the light side for a beer referring to itself as 'tripel'. Flawed, unfortunately, but even with the diacetyl, DMS and unpleasant phenols theoretically taken out of the equation, what you would be left with is still a tripel trying to cash in on international 'hop forward' trends and missing the point entirely there; a better option would have been to take the 'Belgian IPA' direction here, and ending up with something along the lines of e.g. Houblon Chouffe, Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor or the yearly special magnum-bottled editions of Lupulus... Not a success, alas, but who knows, the previous 4Pajot version may have been better, and hopefully this Dirk Heroes brews it better at home too - where, given that this is the current commercial version, it better had stayed. Craywinckelhof has done much better than this on a technical level.

29/III/20 - 33cl bottle from De Hopduvel (Gent), shared @ home, BB: III/2021 (2020-287)

Slightly cloudy blond yellow beer, huge aery and slightly fizzy white head, little stable, adhesive, leaving some lacing in the glass. Aroma: pretty chemical, dirty, bit sourish, infected, some brett, funky, bit lemony. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: bitter touch, some citrus, fruity, bit chemical, grapefruit notes, spicy, some ginger, more bitterness, chemical. Aftertaste: bit of an unpleasant bitterness, spicy, funky, bit dirty, chemical, citrus fruits.

28 April 2019. At Zythos Bierfestival. Cheers to Anke, 77ships & tderoeck! Clear pale golden, lasting, small, frothy, white head. Aroma of rubber, wood, vanilla, banana, white bread, white sugar, soap. Taste is light to medium sugary sweet, spoiled fruit, candied banana, white bread, minor spicy bitter notes of pepper, rubber, something chemical, ending dryish, very faint grassy hops, more rubber, white sugar, giving the slightly wry alcohol a white rum-like effect. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation. Even more hopeless than the Port version…

28 April 2019. At Zythos Bierfestival. Cheers to Anke, 77ships & tderoeck! Clear pale golden, lasting, small, frothy, white head. Aroma of dried banana, apricot, apple sauce, vanilla, juniper, honey. Taste is light fruity sweet, banana & apple sauce on a ‘wet’ bready malty base, sourish lime & gooseberry, bitter notes of juniper & spices, ending dryish, with vague grassy hops, some wood, vanilla, and not too elegant warming alcohol, sherry-like at best, but hinting more towards cheap white wine. Where’s my port?