Pours a darker amber. Very spicy saison, rye is recognizable and so is the saison yeast. No clue what passion peppers are supposed to taste like, though - perhaps it's also helping this spicy character ? Medium full body. Nice.

Pours a hazed blonde. Taste is fairly intense bitter, pretty different to the NEIPA style I expected, but after all, this is a Hazy IPA, not a NEIPA. Pleasant citrus aroma, as well as a very malty base. Easy drinker, upper strength IPA.

Pours a dark brown ( brown IPA?) . Medium intense roasty character, hops provide a very pleasant bitterness, and a mild hoparoma (could be amped up just a tad for me). Medium full body. More than decent!

Hazy white IPA fermented with kveik, a collaboration of Gistgeest with another, brand new microbrewery in Edegem (south of Antwerp) called Magnus; I had a chat with the brewer of the latter at Ghent Beer Fest, where he claimed that this beer was not actually brewed in Gistgeest’s kettles nor his own, but in the kettles of a test facility in the buildings of Boortmalt, one of the world’s largest malt producers. Gistgeest and other small Antwerp brewers apparently make use of this non-commercial facility as well for their own beers – an interesting opportunity for ambitious new craft brewers, clearly… This Hip Hop Hooray shows a large-bubbled, snow white, irregularly shaped and slowly breaking head and hazy yellow blonde robe with somewhat olive-greenish tinge. Refreshingly citrusy aroma of lime zest, pomelo, fresh lemon thyme, cake dough, unripe mango in the background, lemongrass, vague spruce tip and a ‘diesel’-like dank aspect kept well in check. Sweetish fruity onset but clean and sleek (in spite of the kveik), with impressions of green pear, lychee and unripe banana or hard nectarine, softishly carbonated with smooth body; some light wheat slickness indeed, next to a more bready-doughy cerealliness, deeply steeped in zesty, citrusy and very lightly tropical hoppiness with a very brief piney note trailing behind. Hints of mango, lime and pink pepper linger retronasally, while a somewhat powdery, spicy but altogether friendly bitterness is established. Many craft brewers today seem to aim at a kind of ‘generic’ IPA combining elements of different established IPA styles, and this often results in largely interchangeable ‘compromise’ IPAs which are accessible and easygoing; there are legions of so-called ‘mountain IPAs’ in North America, holding the middle between West Coast an New England, and more legions of such ‘generic’ IPAs in Europe. This one clearly belongs to that broad, postmodern category of accessible generic IPAs, with a dash of West Coast bitterness, a dash of wheat for white IPA associations, a hazy look to resemble NEIPA etc. – while ending up quite restrained in all those features, as if unable to choose sides. That said, with IPA having conquered first North America and then the world, there is no doubt that demand for this kind of introductory, non-outspoken IPAs will only rise in coming years, so commercially speaking, this is certainly not a bad decision; it also helps that this Hip Hop Hooray is technically well executed, manages to balance out all these different elements from citrusy over piney to dank by not exaggerating any of them, and generally comes across as the kind of go-to IPA (sic) I could sip all day on a summery afternoon. I am, however, perhaps more curious about what this Magnus guy made of black IPA and saison, his ‘own’ creations which I still have to sample.

17/VI/22 - 33cl can @ Klaas’ place, BB: III/2023 (2022-709) Thanks for sharing!

Cloudy orange beer, small creamy off-white head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: a bit oxidized, sweet, vanilla, quite some lactose. MF: ok carbon, medium body. Taste: nice and fruity, peaches, a bit oxidized, a little chemical, some lactose.

Pours mildly hazed, almost clear - compared to the average IPA these days. Small white head, scent is stonefruity. Taste is sharp, bit bitter, citrus and stonefruits. Coconutty. Lovely ! Medium body and carbo. Super drinkable. Very crisp and malty, fresh base. Very enjoyable !

Gusher. Pours a clear blonde. Big white head fades fairly fast, but keeps rebuilding by the visually high CO2 . Scent is bold, sharp, tripel forward. Medium fruityness. Taste is completely whiped away by the rediculously high carbo. Towards acidic, banana builds up. Exhaustingly yeasty. Not a huge fan...

Zythos 2022. Hazy dark blond colour with thin head. Fresh and citrusy hit of hops. Decent body too.

Pours hazed amber, medium sized, creamy white head. Scent is way to mild on the hops for an IPA, but the creamy (malty) base does show, with a mild rye character. Taste is full, bitter, elegantly and assertively hopped. Very pleasant, milder hoparoma than expected for the style. Medium mild bitterness. Fairly creamy maltbase. Super smooth, easy and fun drinker. Medium bitter finish. Lovely sessionable beer