New Belgian IPA with two American hop varieties, made at De Graal to a recipe developed by home brewer Rikkert De Donder in Zele and celebrating the 50th anniversary of a local youth club called Juvenes (hence the name). In spite of the name, apparently brewed with wheat instead of rye, possibly inspired by Kees’ Double Rye IPA from the Netherlands, which has the same general profile. Only 150 crates were made for now, but there are plans to expand into an independent micro brewery. Fairly thick, creamy, lightly but consistently lacing, beaten egg-white head consisting of densely packed minute bubbles and retaining exceptionally well (still completely closed after half an hour); lightly hazy, deep warm orange blonde robe with vaguely brownish hue and vivid fizz, turning a misty amber as more of the yeast sediment gradually goes into the glass. Aroma adorns a fruity yeast character with rather restrained American hop aromas, resulting in a blend of impressions: moldy orange peel, green banana, faint whiff of bubblegum, dried ginger, (very) strong phenolic cloves, damp earth, white pepper, horseradish, apricot, soap, refined sweet mandarin and bitter grapefruit from the hops struggling a bit to get through, lightly toasted bread. Lively fruity onset, subduedly sweetish but more sourish, impressions of gooseberry, green banana, unripe pear and peach, with hop bitterness already showing itself at a very early stage. Supple, smooth, medium carbonated body, lightly bready barley with an accent of soapy - sourish wheatiness provides a solid backbone for the hops, which, from their onsetting bitterness at the start, evolve into a full-fledged, peppery, resinous and tonic water-like bitterness which comes to full glory in the finish, yielding modest grapefruit peel and spice aromas retronasally, mingled with clove-like phenols. The rooty, earthy bitterness dries the back of the mouth and throat for quite a long while: no compromise here. Some warming, gin-like alcohol warms the chest after swallowing. Honestly, there are so many of these occasional ales around in Belgium that they are often interchangeable, but this one does it differently: uncompromising hop bitterness justifies the use of the term ’IPA’ here, that much is clear. Some will probably argue that the yeasty aromas (esters and, more than anything, phenols) will distract from the hop aromas, but apparently the brewer did use an American yeast strain here - making me wonder why it still came out so fruity, perhaps fermentation temperatures have something to do with this. Whatever the case, a somewhat cleaner yeast profile would probably have made this better still, and so would a more ’lush’ and generous American hop aroma (as the hops add more pure bitterness than fragrance in this case), but for a first attempt, I cannot but encourage Rikkert to keep it up and venture deeper into the international craft beer styles. I am pleasantly surprised with this. Flawless from a strictly technical point of view, too, but I assume this benefits from De Graal’s experience; I hope this young brewer can maintain the same technical level when he decides to expand his own brewery into the realm of commercialism.