Red IPA by this new and progressive Walloon microbrewery, bottle from Etre Gourmet. Medium thick, paper-lacing, creamy, bit irregular, yellowish pale beige, closed head over a misty ruddy bronze beer with rusty-copper reddish hue but more looking brown than red generally speaking. Aroma of dry grapefruit peel, tonic water, roasted pine nuts, wet toast, dried wormwood, persimmon, barbecue spices, dry tree leaves, frying olive oil. Cleanly fruity onset, some background notes of unripe banana and hard pear, spritzy carbonation, slick oily mouthfeel; smooth, bit resinous nutty malt body, peanut and toast aspects with more bitterness than sweetness to it, yet still harbouring a softening bready edge. Hoppiness, though, comes up quickly, adding dried citrus peel and light pine aspects retronasally in a clean, ‘non-dank’ way, a tad earthy but most of all, powerfully bittering, with a dry, spicy effect. Hopped the ‘old school’ way, this is a credible and very pleasant example of the intended American style, even if it cannot hide just a little bit of ‘yeasty Belgianness’. Very enjoyable and much better in its respective style than the Carya from the same brewery I had the day before.

One of several beers by this new Walloon microbrewery that seems to deliberately choose for a modern, non-traditionally Belgian approach, therefore quite quickly being adopted by the more internationally oriented craft beer geeks in this country. Bottle from Être Gourmet, this Carya is apparently a “brown ale à la noix de pecan”, with the beer’s name referring to the scientific name of the pecan tree. Mousy, creamy, regular, pale mocha-beige, quickly thinning and opening head, cloudy nut brown robe with khaki-ish tinge, but generally looking quite murky and muddy, not very attractive visually. Adding nuts and other plant materials rather often creates fermentation issues, infections and the like, so the aroma has a deep yeasty earthiness to it I honestly wasn’t too surprised about: moldy old nut shells, damp forest floor, moss, dried old plums, blackberry, red apple, salsify root, mud, soggy old bread. Estery fruity onset, apple, fig and some banana with a sourish blackberry aspect that feels rather ‘dirty’, medium to softly carbonated; slick nutty malt body, nut shells soaked in muddy pool water but with a redeeming, sweetish caramelly side to it as well as a dim bitterish toasty edge. Ends a tad astringent due to tannins from the nuts, along with a very ‘muddy’, dirty earthiness and bready yeasty effects, over a mildly bittering herbal hop note. More a ‘dirty dubbel’ than a brown ale in the true, Anglo-Saxon sense of the word, with the pecan nuts – even if interesting conceptually – having added more unpleasant ‘dirtiness’ than delicious nuttiness, I cannot say that my first encounter with this brewery is a very positive one, alas.

F: thin, tanned film with some big bubbles. C: black, totally opaque. A: roasted malts, cocoa, chocolate, chocolate cookies, bit vinous, dark fruits, bit vanilla, orange is also in traces. T: rich dark malty, chocolate, cocoa, dark dried fruits, dark caramel, bit toffee, oily mouthfeel, bit vinous retronasal, bit vanilla, not very complex and from 06/18 yet quite rich taste still with full body and practically no carbonation, nice for me, enjoyed, 33cl bottle from Malting Pot bottle shop in Brussels.

F: big, tan, good retention. C: dark coppery to brown, hazy. A: malty, caramel, biscuits, a lot of fresh tropical fruits, bit pine, bit passion fruits. T: solid malty backbone, caramel, biscuits, bit grapefruits, tropical fruits, bit pine resin, decent bitterness, relatively easy drinkable, very nice balanced and pleasant surprise from for me new brewery from Wallonia, really enjoyable, 33cl bottle from Malting Pot bottle shop in Brussels.

Draft @ BBP Beer X-mas Party. Brune voire noire, col épais café au lait. Arôme est chargé au niveau des malts, chocolaté à souhait avec bele ffet cacao, le tout est assez fort au niveau des malts et grains, le côté vanille reste plus discret et l'apport de pelure d'orange est également un peu en retrait. Palais est épais sur une bonne base de malts, chocolaté, cacao et une longueur de bouche au niveau des grains. Chaleur de l'alcool revient en retrait et une douceur persistante de vanille. Retrouve un petit côté rappelant la sauce soja. Amertume au niveau des houblons ajoutent une fine note de fruité sur un houblonné plutôt américain.

Draft @ BBP Beer X-mas Party. Léger orange, col épais crémeux blanc-cassé. Arôme est bien houblonné aux effluves arborants des notes d'agrumes, fruité moyen virant sur le tropical avec un petit bouquet rappelant le thé vert voire le jasmin. Allie bien les notes de malt type ambre et caramel. Palais est finement fruité sur les agrumes - pointe tropicale avec qcq notes de pamplemousse. Malt rappelant le Vienna, crystal ou ambre laissant un fini un peu grain.