Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Bottled (Alko Web). Hazy goldeny orange with a mediumsized white head. Aroma is fruity, some spicy and mild berry tones. Flavour is Belgo spicy yeast with some floral, fruity and some mild sweet malty tones. OK, but hmm, quite standard, considering the Royale

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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

33cl bottle from a trade with JefVerstraete. A slightly hazy golden beer with a white head. Aroma of unripe green banana, wheat malt and yeast. Taste of green banana, wheat malt, yeast, some herbs and lemon.

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5

Another ‘Belgian IPA’ – this time effectively labelled as such, for a change. Bottle from a delicacy shop in Sint-Martens-Latem. Very thick, rocky and foamy, membrane-lacing, egg-white, dense head towering over an initially clear, pure and yellowish golden beer, turning misty and somewhat ochre-ish with sediment. Aroma initially muffled by all that foam, but then starting to reveal impressions of oxidized green apple wedges, dried out white bread, bitter honey, banana peel, fresh thyme, wet grass, clove, green mandarin, lemonbalm, chamomile, pumice, cooked turnip. Crisp, fruity onset, notes of banana, apple and pear but nowhere too sweet, lively and very minerally carbonation, cereally and bread-crusty maltiness becoming decreasingly sweet and increasingly bitter as the finish approaches, bringing a long, leafy and floral hoppiness, rather earthy in the end, mingling with remaining breadiness and outspoken spicy phenols (clove, thyme, perhaps some nutmeg). ‘Long’, dry bitter blonde the Belgian way rather than true IPA so in that sense again a typical Belgian attempt at IPA – but as a hop-forward blonde, not the worst in its class and drinkable enough for me.

Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7

@home poured into a shaker. Slightly hazy pale golden colour, good frothy white head, slowly dissipating, thin foamy layer remains, fair lacing. Aroma pale malts, apricot, peach, hint caramel, pine resin, stale hops. Mild taste, medium sweet and bitter, malty, peach, orange rind, resinous hops. Medium body, oily texture, average carbonation, dry bittersweet aftertaste, orange pith, dusty hops, well-balanced, despite some flaws quite nice.

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

33cl bottle from Cora in Brussels. F: thin, white, quick gone. C: gold, light hazy. A: orange peels, coriander, spicy, banana, bit honey. T: medium malty base, coriander, orange, spicy, soft carbonation, ok let´s say drinkable yet not for the style.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

My first beer from this young microbrewery - one of many - in the Belgian capital, a tripel spiced with coriander (surprise, surprise) and the far less obvious 'verbena', which I assume in this case refers to lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora, a South American plant species often found in horticulture). Thick and very mousy, egg-white, tightly cobweb-lacing, audibly crackling head on a lightly hazed, 'metallic' pale orange-golden beer with some disparate strings of sparkling here and there, turning a bit more misty with sediment but remaining translucent. Aroma of indeed ground coriander seed and a lot of it, dried apricot, straw, old bread crust, vague background DMS (cooked green cabbage or, in this case, even spoiled vegetable soup) fortunately not pushing itself to the foreground too much, herbal tea-ish note which I assume subtly represents the lemon verbena, ripe banana, raw parsnip, glazed carrots, 'oude jenever', pear, hints of honey, iron, granite rocks or some other kind of minerality, dry earth. Spritzy, fruity, sweetish onset, lots of minerally and tingling carbonation, impressions of pear, red apple, banana and pineapple, some residual sweetness lingering over a slick, smooth-edged cereally maltiness with caramelly edges; growing coriander seed presence in the finish but luckily not going into complete overdrive (contrary to what I feared) yet still very clearly adding its typical soapy spiciness, although the lemon verbena indeed manages to balance it with its perfumey, citrusy 'fraîcheur', which does not last long. Perfumey soapiness, the combination of both coriander and lemon verbena, rises up retronasally, while a leafy hop bitterness is established and a warming, 'jenever'-ish alcohol glow shows up. A slick glue- and soap-like effect remains in the end, bittered by the hops and sweetened by the alcohol on the one hand and residual sugars on the other hand. Sweet, cleanish tripel with a slight perfumey twist to it - luckily not too perfumey, because that would have landed this beer well below 3/5 for me. They did manage to keep the herbalness, spiciness and soapiness relatively decent, but it does feel like the umpteenth overly 'commercial' sweet tripel even with the rather unusual herb added to it - don't we have an overpopulation of those already in this country? Redundant at best, another attempt at trying to be modern with an English sounding name, glossy label and longneck bottle, while miserably failing at understanding the true spirit of the global craft beer movement. It is a good thing that old Brussels has spawned a lot of these urban nouvelle vague brewing initiatives in the last years - guided by Senne and BBP - but the chaff needs to be separated from the wheat...

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5.5 | Flavor - 5.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5.5

Huge, dense off-white head over finely carbonated golden beer. "Beery"-vegetable nose, herbs, grassy. Hints at white candi sugar. Sweetish-herbal taste, leading to a weird combination. Rather neutral main flavour. Light body, some oily slickness. Dusty-chalky aftertaste, which gradually builds up some bitterness, as from orangepeel. Ho-hum. Thanks to Stef!

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

33cl bottle from Cora in Brussels. F: medium, white, quick gone. C: pale gold, hazy. A: malty, mellow fruity, bit bready, toast, hay. T: full malty base, fruity, peach, bit herbal, mint touch, bit honey, medium carbonation, ok, not bad, enjoyed.

Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5.5 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Fast gone white head over nearly clear golden beer. Roasted, bit "putteke", rind/crust from runny cheese, toasted malts. Toasted, bit hay-ish, spicy malts. More fruity than most tripels, some alcoholsweetness. Lightly burning MF, some light alcoholimpression that pushes the sweetness into the aftertaste. Not very attenuated, I would guess, very mild carbonation. All in all not that bad, just not very exciting. Thanks to Stef!