Alengrin
Ghent, Belgium 🇧🇪 MemberOptions
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Alengrin (11609) reviewed Hopulair from Skøllmann VOF 4 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
"American IPA" (whatever that means) by Skøllmann in Damme, a 'bierfirma' having their products executed at De Meester (formerly Gulden Spoor apparently so it seems to be around for quite a while); seemingly claims to contain mandarin, but the ingredients list does not mention that in any case. Longneck bottle from the Delhaize supermarket at Dok-Noord in Ghent. Thick and frothy, rocky, cobweb-lacing, egg-white, even-bubbled, dense head on a deeply misty orange- to peach blonde robe with almost amberish-brownish tinge. Aroma of dried mandarin peel indeed (!), spoiled chicken soup, wet old yellow curry powder, Italian Marzano tomatoes stewed for a very long time, wrinkled autumn apples, cooked parsnip, pumpkin, cumin cheese, touches of honey, ripe peach, pond water, clove (4-vinyl-guaiacol) and overripe cucumber. 'Greenish', somewhat soupy onset, lacking the brightness that any contemporary IPA should have, directed at cooked pumpkin, unripe peach and stewed eggplant with a touch of apple peel, remaining appropriately low in sweetness whilst acquiring more of that soupy umami flavour (as in chervil or chicken soup); quite spritzy in carbonation, with softish mouthfeel. Cereally core with a rusk- and breadstick-like malty layer on top of it, so actually more malty than many a contemporary IPA (unjustly) is, with these malts - even becoming a wee bit toasty in the end - being overruled by a leafy, somewhat earthy but also very thinly citrusy hoppiness, fighting against a heavy, almost 'meaty' dosage of clove- and bouillon-like 4-vinyl-guaiacol. Aromatically speaking it loses the fight ingloriously, but luckily the hops do provide a trace of an earthy, wet autumn-leafy, 'dark' bitterness in the end, lasting for a while. Yet again, we are presented with a weird attempt at 'generic' American IPA - that alone is suspicious enough already - in the country of overly yeasty, sometimes brilliant and sometimes oddly earthy and unbalanced ales, resulting in something best overarchingly described as 'Belgian IPA'. This one in particular clearly has no clue, as it seemingly tries to evoke the old West Coast idiom - in itself already dated for at least a decade - and miserably fails at that. Too bad: I recall having their black IPA (preceding this one for all I know) along with Yuri Hegge at one of the Zythos beer festivals in Leuven, and actually liking it... This is a completely different story altogether, very soupy, yeasty, earthy and phenolic - even within the "Belgian IPA" category, I cannot honestly say I liked this. I am always suspicious when the De Meester name appears - and yet again it is clear that IPAs in the 'international' sense are not their cup of tea at all, regardless of what Skøllmann's imput is. Could, and should, have been much better.
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6
The Musketeers have been operating for two decades as inspired client brewers before opening their own brewery in my home region of the Waasland (the northeastern corner of East Flanders) in 2019, and have kept the tradition of honouring their original beer with a yearly special alive. I have yet to find the 2024 Special Edition but pending that, I am having this 2025 one already, oddly describing itself very generically as a 'strong blonde' without any further specification - an ominous sign, as I have deplored the decline in 'inspiration' of their beers ever since they set up their state of the art brewing site six years ago. Bottle from De Hopduvel. Medium thick, off-white, paper-lacing, generally stable head on an initially clear 'old golden' robe, a pure golden blonde with a touch of ochre in it, paler in any case than I recall from the original Magma upon which this beer is ultimately based; turns misty with sediment. Aroma of soggy white bread, healthy breakfast cookies, cold chamomile tea, hard unripe pear, green banana, chewing gum, rubber somewhere, industrial chicken 'bouillon' cubes, chicken soup in powdered 'minute soup' form, vague whiff of vanilla, old yellow curry powder, dry sand, spoiled chervil, hint of 'oude jenever'. Spritzy onset, high minerality due to sharp carbonation (or "pearly" as the brewery calls it), sweetish with a bubblegummy undertone accompanying notes of hard pear, green banana and very unripe peach, moving into a smooth-edged, quite full yet slick middle, cereally and white-bready but 'simplistic' in all, acquiring a white-peppery, grassy hop bitterish ending, with a chicken stock cube element lingering behind. 'Jenever'-like alcohol warms things up in the end, a tad wryly so, as a smooth cereally flavour and mild grassy hops keep lingering. The contrast with early editions of Troubadour Magma Special Edition could not be more stark; the only thing setting this Aura apart, bearing in mind that its name refers to gold, is that it aspires to be an 'edelbier' competing with the almighty Duvel. It has the exact same ABV, talks about 'pearliness', is clearly paler than most of its predecessors - I mean come on, it is quite obvious, is it not? Well, if my theory is right, then this only proves how desperately this brewery is trying - and partially succeeding - to establish itself in beery mainstream; this is fine as such, I guess, but it keeps saddening me that in doing so, they constantly forsake their own inspired beginnings. I am beginning to wonder if I should keep following their brews, to be entirely frank...
Alengrin
updated a beer:
Troubadour Magma Special Edition 2025 Aura
brewed by Brouwerij The Musketeers
4 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Atlas from Nanobrasserie de l'Ermitage 4 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Ermitage collaborating with a Brussels coffee roaster in this coffee stout; can from the Hopduvel in Ghent. Regular, quite thick and moussey, even-bubbled, dense, creamy, slowly thinning, pale greyish beige head on a black robe with waferthin hickory brown edges; a couple of patches of something unattractively solid, likely related to the coffee addition, stick to my glass in the end. Aroma of cold black coffee but somehow still less coffee-aromatic than expected, toasted brown bread, salmiak, Maggi, burnt walnuts, caramel, molasses, wet leather, dried blueberries, 'drop', Ersatz chocolate, unsugared chewing gum, reduced gravy, porcini. Sweetish onset with vague fruity notes of pear, apple and plum, surrounded by a layer of beef stock-ish umami and a 'deep', dim sourishness; softish carb, smooth mouthfeel made even smoother by the oatmeal. Oatmeal also shines through a bit in the middle, overwhelmed by a dry-caramelly, somewhat peanutty, Ersatz-chocolatey and toasty maltiness, 'deep and dark' as a stout ought to be with this sourish edge of 'old' coffee, but only then a 'green coffee bean'-like aspect appears, again much more so than actual roasted coffee bitterness - and the spicy coffee aromas I was hoping for. Do not get me wrong, this beer is full of coffee for sure, but it seems to have a more 'green' and plant-like character than I was expecting; it does, in the end, adequately performs its job in establishing a spicy end bitterness, aided by herbal hops and toasty malts. An umami accent, as in reduced gravy, yet flavoured with dried blueberries for sweetness, lingers beyond all this... Altogether enjoyable, 'moderately' but consistently coffee-flavoured oatmeal stout, even if I was, perhaps, expecting a bit more in view of the usual Ermitage standards.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Krush Test Dummy from Dok Brewing Company 4 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Newish APA by Dok and a single hop one, featuring nothing but Krush, a hop variety launched officially only in 2024 by the Hop Breeding Company, operating in the upper echelons of the current hop industry. I have encountered this variety once before but I cannot remember in which beer or from which brewery - in any case this is Dok's first application of it. Irregular, intricately 'sun prominence-like', yellowish egg-white, medium thick, opening but otherwise more or less retaining head on a cloudy apricot blonde robe with beige-ish tinge. Quite distinct and interesting aroma of green guava, pepino, raw Kohlrabi, fresh grapefruit zest, unripe apricot, lemon bread, cut true aloe leaves, hints of young redcedar leaves, green plum, surimi, barley porridge. Restrainedly sweetish, quite juicy onset, citric, with side hints of unripe green fruits - far less 'tropical' than I was expecting, unless of course one counts unripe tropical fruits, "à la" green mango, green guava or green carambola; medium carb, smooth body, a tad powdery, with a basic porridge-like barley 'sponginess' soaked in the Krush hops, adding a range of 'green' aromas in spite of their proportionally low myrcene content - almost as in green kale stalks (or indeed Kohlrabi), cucumber peel and matcha tea, but also hints of freshly cooked shrimp (oddly), parsley, dandelion leaves and pear peel. The hops in question also deposit a late yet persisting, eventually quite 'deep' peppery bitterness. Totally different from what I was expecting from this hop variety based on what is typically advertized for, far less 'sultry' and far more 'green plant-like', but all the more interesting for it - this relative oddity has notes of green house plants and raw green stalks one does not find in just any beer so in that respect it is certainly a different take on the typically sweet-citrusy, mango- and passionfruit-like aromas and flavours of other contemporary APAs. One of those beers that show that Dok continues to be at the cutting edge of international developments in brewing - it takes a very alert and passionate brewing team to maintain this approach especially in times when craft beer seems to be a bit on the wane here in Belgium. A bit of a challenge, this one, but once you get used to it, it keeps surprising with its unexpected, sometimes even downright odd features. I am happy to give an extra point for that.
Alengrin
added a new beer
Krush Test Dummy
by
Dok Brewing Company
4 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Dude Where Is My Dude from Dok Brewing Company 4 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
The latest in the unofficial "Dude" series by Dok, now in its sixth year and consisting of variations on a sour IPA theme - in this case 'enriched' with grapefruit and blood orange, the first even already added during whirlpooling. Medium thick, off-white, shred-lacing, slowly breaking head on a misty yellow blonde robe with warmer apricot glow. Aroma of indeed very pronounced grapefruit but in a marmalade-ish way, grapefruit zest, less obvious blood orange but still clearly present if you know what to look for, sour milk, sweat, overripe onions forgotten somewhere at the back of the fridge, drying grass, lemon thyme, valerian, old socks, lemon soap, old cheese rind, dusty gravel. Spritzy, crisp onset, fruity-sour in a yoghurty way but sharply so, lemony, with the citric effect obviously amplified by the added grapefruit and blood orange, the first adding more bitterness than juiciness and the second the other way around, with side impressions of lime and guava fleetingly passing by; lively carb, minerally, with smooth body. Cereally core, indeed simple Pilsener malt with a touch of pale, pressed between drying, lactic sourness with sweaty-funky side effects on the one hand and bright, zesty citrusiness on the other hand, coming from the hops, but of course also from the actual citrus fruit. In the end, drying yet altogether quite moderate bitterness is interestingly established by a confluence of hops and grapefruit, while the blood orange maintains a long-stretched effect of crisp citric juiciness. Luckily more beery and less "brunch juice"-like than I was fearing, this is another satisfying Dude episode, with some funky elements just for fun while focusing on how juiciness can merge with bitterness by learning from nature's masters in that very combination: citrus fruit. Summery and quenching yet still intellectually entertaining, what is there not to like?
Alengrin
added a new beer
Dude Where Is My Dude
by
Dok Brewing Company
4 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Suffolk Bitter from Marks & Spencer Stores 4 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Adnams' classic Suffolk Strong Bitter somewhat ironically made even stronger but just called "Suffolk Bitter" for the Marks & Spencer supermarket chain; bottle from the Marks & Spencer at Union Square in Aberdeen, rating partially from memory as the notes almost got lost in machine washing my shirt (long story). Off-white, medium sized, opening head on a pure orangey amber robe with copper glow. Aroma of toast, herb crackers, unsalted peanuts, dry caramel, apple peel, dry grass. Restrained dried apple peel-ish fruitiness in the onset, low sweetness, medium carb with slick, smooth body; cracker- and peanut-like maltiness, a tad metallic round the edges, slight bitterish toastiness and softly bittering grassy hops, keeping each other in balance. By itself perhaps not the most 'natural' or genuine bitter - or in this case, perhaps more of an EPA, but for a supermarket offering and with the old trusted name of Adnams attached to it (admittedly a large one but still independent), I found this quite worthwhile and clearly remember enjoying it.