15/V/22 - 33cl can, shared @ the Abeels’ place, BB: 8/VI/23, canned: 8/III/22, L067V (2022-511) Thanks to the Abeels for sharing the can!

Clear pale blond to straw yellow beer, big fluffy bit irregular head, stable, adhesive. Aroma: very malty, grains, hay, cow fodder, wort, meh. MF: ok carbon, medium to light body. Taste: lemony, oranges, orange peel, citrus, pretty bitter, malty, dry. Aftertaste: very malty, grains, cow fodder, slightly fruity, citrus, well, at least it’s a bitter beer. But there is not much modern IPA about this one… Very mediocre and overall disappointing.

330ml can: BB 10th December 2022. Drank at home on 14th May 2022. Slight haze to the light golden body, white head. Citrus like aroma and taste, lemon being the main player.

500ml can from B&M - Deep russet brown, short lived white top. Nose is sweet caramel and malty, hints of chocolate and raisin there. Taste is sweetish, yeasty, malt loaf, bit watery for its ABV. Nothing special but not horrendous.

DIPA from a client brewing company in Breda, arising from a number of local breweries there which either closed their doors or fell into the clutches of AB InBev; being part of their 'Craft Nation' portfolio, this beer is to be looked upon with Argus' eyes, as it is clearly a sign of the times we live in, where macro breweries have discovered the potential of craft beer and try to cash in on the hype by imitating them, assuming that the intellectually unambitious craft beer drinker will not care (or notice the difference) if the beer comes from a macro or a micro brewery. See recent development in the United States for similar cases - but let us stick to the beer here. Can from an Albert Heijn supermarket. Initially medium sized, egg-white, opening, slightly lacing 'ring' of a head with some sparse flat islands in the middle, eventually disappearing all but completely over a clear deep and warm orange apricot blonde robe. Aroma of raw cauliflower, raw green beans, margarine, that 'cooked cloth' smell of pasteurization, honey, iron, dried orange peel, white bread pulp, dry breakfast cereals, hints of green kiwi, peanuts, apple juice and something sulfuric (freshly lit matches). Sweetish, clean, slick onset, red apple, peach and mango in the most superficial, artificial, understated and inexpressive way possible, quite lively carbonated with lots of irrelevant minerality; slick, rounded body, feeling thinner than the ABV would suggest. A metallic resonance accompanies a dry cookie- and industrial biscuit-like maltiness, with lingering honeyish sweetness delving into a growing end bitterness of, granted, very hoppy nature; dried orange peel, old dry lemongrass and perhaps a touch of pine resin do come up retronasally, while that metallic effect and the relative 'emptiness' of the malt bill continue. Before long, a soft glow of wodka-like alcohol supports the hops in both bitterness and 'sweetish' aromatics so that the finish does not end as bad as expected based on the nose. A reference to old school DIPA has admittedly been put in this beer, but generally it feels like some hop-forward tripel made by one of the macro-brewing Belgian enterprises; as if AB InBev itself tried to create a DIPA from its own style and understanding. Among the worst beers calling itself 'double IPA' I ever had - I do not know who created this and why, nor do I know where it is physically produced, but it is crystal clear that it has no 'raison d'être' and should not have existed in the first place. Almost like Victoria on hops...

33 cl. can @ home, bought @ van Rooij, Culemborg.
Light hazy golden with a white head. Grainy aroma with some citrus hops. Sweet taste with a low bitter finish. Simple but decent enough.

Can 33cl. from a local AH supermarket @home poured into a pint glass. Slightly hazy medium amber colour, small frothy white head, some retention, light lacing. Aroma sweet malts, caramel, peach, citrus. Taste medium sweet and light bitter, malty, caramel, peach, citrus, resinous notes. Medium body, oily texture, smooth bittersweet aftertaste, pine resin, spicy notes, meatallic notes, esp. in the aftertaste quite coarse, okay.