smallwat3r (4870) ticked Scorpio from HOPPosition 7 months ago
Alengrin (11561) reviewed Bye Bye Trump! from HOPPosition 10 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Black IPA created in the run-up to the presidential elections in the U.S. last year - deliberately a black one, flavoured with black coffee, to address the supposed racist tendencies of the winner of these elections, with an accompanying text on the label listing all the things they accuse the new president of (even complaining that there is not enough room on the can to list them all). Politically charged beers are a tricky thing - so let us quickly move on to the actual beer. Thick and frothy, shred-lacing, pale greyish beige, firm and rocky, clearly hops-enhanced head on a very dark chestnut brown beer (though not entirely black) with amberish glow. Aroma of dry pine needles, roasted pumpkin seeds, toast, black pepper, dry herbes de Provençe, dried grapefruit peel but otherwise low in citrusiness, mace, old shag, porcini, fenugreek seed, burnt wood, dandelions, bayleaf, cigars. Restrainedly fruity onset, some vague apple peel, old raisin and dried prune but not actually sweet with a dim sourish undertone and light umami accents (black olive); medium carb, a bit minerally, through an otherwise smooth body. Dry-caramelly, toasted-bready, roasted beech-nutty core with a light haemoglobin effect (iron, but in a perfectly natural way), from the middle onwards reinforced by the coffee (adding more roasty bitterness but little coffee aroma) and, more than anything else, peppery, earthy, leafy hop bitterness, mingling with accents of bayleaf, mace and clove from the yeast with its own aromas of pine, black pepper and dried thyme. The hops get to dominate, but this light earthiness and ashiness does persist, albeit in a way subtle enough not to bother me; instead, and this is a point of criticism I have with the majority of European BIPAs, I miss a more outspoken New World hop aroma (citric or otherwise) to fully justify the 'IPA' part in 'BIPA'. Nevertheless a very decent black 'Cascadian', even more so considering this brewing project is less than two years old. I guess it leaves its creators with a bitter aftertaste, though, with things turning out into "hello again Trump" rather than "bye bye Trump"... I wonder about the amount of duties they would have to pay to get this European beer onto the American market now.
Alengrin (11561) reviewed Scorpio from HOPPosition 10 months ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Tripel spiced with Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, which once (in 2012) proudly beared the title of hottest chili pepper in the world - a daring choice indeed, though I had beers with even stronger peppers and can withstand a serious dosage of capsaicin, so I am not worried... Comes from a newish (2023) brewing company in Wavre, still a client brewer for the time being, with this one - coming from a can filled last September - physically executed at CoHop, a conglomerate of microbrewing initiatives in Brussels. Time to find out if the chili peppers can warm me up on this freezing January night... Thinnish but stable, snow white, membrane-like lacing, fine-bubbled, opening head leaving a steady ring, shards of lacing and flat 'islands' in the middle but eventually dissolving completely (probably because of the chili's oils); misty pale yellow blonde robe with ochre-ish tinge, rather pale for a tripel in fact. Aroma of fried banana, ripe Durondeau pear, white soap, raw green bell pepper, candy apple, bubblegum, oatmeal porridge, powder sugar, dish water, dry green peppercorns, raw courgette, touch of honey, rainwater, white rum. Sweet onset, clear isoamylacetate (banana-flavoured bubblegum) and a bit too much of it for my personal liking, fried apple and ripe pear, lively carbonated with minerally effects distracting a bit from the flavours; rounded, full-ish mouthfeel, smooth white-bread-doughy pale maltiness with ongoing sweet fruitiness on top plus residual sugars, the smoothness enhanced by the oats. Wheat slickness and soapiness are clearly present as well and become almost as strong as the barley breadiness - but I wonder why wheat was even used in this beer in the first place... In the finish, only a mild floral hop bitterishness appears, too mild to adequately counter the sweetness; soon enough, a warming, peppery heat from the chilies sets in, spicing up the back of the mouth and throat and lingering after that without becoming painfully strong - but it is very obviously there, and I imagine that for people less used to capsaicin than myself, as tolerance against it varies highly among people, will still find it too much and could be unable to finish this beer for that reason alone. So take that as a warning - I must admit that adding extremely hot peppers to beer, done before lots of times but mostly in strong stouts, is a bold decision to make in Belgium, and it is about time that the old, worn-out tripel style is kicked in the ass and undergoes some innovative experiment. I applaud that as a concept, but the ultimate result is not necessarily a great beer: this one needs less sweetness to match the umami aspect of the chilies better, and for me the oats and wheat are a waste of effort - this could have been done perfectly with barley malts alone, if perhaps with the addition of a slightly darker one. In all: interesting indeed and in a way (h)opposing the old Belgian standards, but a one-trick pony.
Alengrin (11561) reviewed 1815 Imperial IPA from HOPPosition 10 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
One of several beers already in production from this new brewing initiative in the capital of Walloon Brabant, intending to (h)oppose to the old Belgian standards by creating innovative craft beers coming from longneck bottles and cans. This one, physically executed at Renard, is a strong IPA infused with Mandarine Napoléon liqueur (dating back more than two centuries), hence its reference to Napoleon Bonaparte's defeat in 1815. Rather thinnish, quickly opening, off-white, moussey head settling in a stable ring and flat 'islands' in the middle, over a misty orangey peach blonde robe with brownish-amberish tinge. Aroma of dried grapefruit peel and mandarin pith but no sweet citrus flesh, wormwood, bitterroot, dry earth, rusk, indeed something liquor-like (the Mandarine Napoléon - but could have been some other bitter liqueur just as well), dried pine needles, dandelion, unripe peach, white pepper, toasted onions, motherwort, old dry bread crust, very vague iron. Fairly fruity onset in a cleanish, rounded way, sweetish but subduedly so, hinting at dried apricot and persimmon; active, stingy carb, smooth and bit oily mouthfeel. Rusk-, bread crust- and toast-like malts, quickly shifting from sweetish to bitter, with the bitterness increasingly amplified by a strong dosage of earthy, leafy, wormwoody and grapefruit peel-like hops, but also by the bitter effects of this Mandarine Napoléon, which also enhances the booziness - though apart from the obvious warming effects, the liqueur behaves more decently than I was expecting when I read the ingredients list; it effectuates a degree of wryness for sure, with this typical hard liquor-like astringency and peppery heat, but this effect admittedly matches quite well with the grapefruity and wormwoody hop character, combining into a 'bomb' of bitterness played out against the basic bready sweetness of the malts. I usually dislike liquor-infused beers unless it is really subtly done - and though this one is not necessarily subtle, it does somehow manage to get the basics right, with all flavours working well together. Still, there is this Belgian yeastiness (phenols) coming up, along with a slight iron effect, both distracting from what should be happening undisturbed - so yes, this is imperial IPA approaching the classic West Coast idiom to a certain extent, but it also remains a typical 'Belgian IPA' for lack of cleanness, oiliness, hop-fruitiness and sleekness, with a net effect of an emphatically hoppy tripel infused with liqueur. Not too bad, but perhaps 'opposing' Belgian standards less than they set out to do.
Brewery Stats
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