Alengrin
Ghent, Belgium 🇧🇪 MemberOptions
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Alengrin
added a new beer
Viking Pale Ale
by
La Croix du Rat
6 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Kriek 0,0% from Brouwerij Lindemans 6 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 4 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 2.5
Launched in May, this is Lindemans' answer to that whole alcohol-free rage flooding the market today (and not only in beer) - and perhaps also a bit to the rouge hype. They claim it to be the first non-alcoholic kriek lambic in history, which strictly spoken seems to be through, although Belle-Vue did have a low alcohol kriek a couple of decades ago. Medium, densely moussey, pale but pure lilac-pink, closed, stable head over a crystal clear, deep and fiery ruby red robe with scarlet highlights and fine sparkling everywhere. Aroma of little more than red candy à la 'poepegatjes' or 'dropveters' but in a somewhat more refined and more specifically sweet cherry-like way than in the average rouge - as in heavily sugared cherry juice (which comes eerily close to what this actually is, had it not been for the added Stevia sweetener, artificial aromas, antioxidant and ascorbic acid - oh, and the malts and hops of course...). Cloyingly sweet onset, red candy all over but again strictly focusing on cherry flavour, with the added cherry aromas actually reinforcing the cherry juice; while sugar sticks to the enamel of the teeth, a thin, silky, almost watery - if it were not for the sugary syrupiness - 'body' passes by, filling the mouth with sweetened cherry juice. Old-fashioned grenadine, like the bottles I recall from childhood, springs to mind as well, but retronasally there is no doubt possible, as the aromas are very clearly and exclusively focused on sweet cherry. The word 'sweet' cannot be emphasized enough here, but a certain acidity is present as well, perhaps most obviously so in the end, albeit in a very clearly 'ascorbic' way - lemonade-like, in other words. Even sweeter, simpler and more 'immature' than the already very sweet regular Lindemans Kriek, thinner, more artificial and more sugar-syrupy too. Looks nice, though...
Alengrin
updated a beer:
Schiehallion
brewed by Harviestoun
6 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Schiehallion from Harviestoun 6 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Bohemian Pilsener or 'světlý ležák' by Scottish Harviestoun; enjoyed from a bottle at Aberdeen airport as the last Scottish beer of my trip in Scotland (ignoring a Punk IPA by BrewDog). Snow white, bubbly, medium thick, lightly lacing, breaking head over a crystal clear pale 'metallic' brass-golden robe with lively sparkling. Aroma of dried white bread, grass, petrichor, wet cereals, ferrous spring water, dried flowers, green tree leaves in spring. Rounded grainy onset, sweetish with lots of prickly carbonation forming an important minerally undercurrent, running through the whole like a babbling mountain brook. Greenish-cereally malts remain pure till the end, rounded and thereafter bittered by a grassy, even rooty, 'green', very credible, even somewhat 'raw' hoppiness. Quite a solid and pure Pilsener, above average for one not made in its home region, I would say.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed St. Mungo from WEST 6 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Pale lager (Helles style) by a brewery in Glasgow. Can from - I believe - the Tesco supermarket in Aberdeen. Snow white, moussey, medium thick, irregular, fairly stable head, clear deep yellow golden robe with sporadic sparkling. Aroma of fresh white bread, touch shortbread even, Grana Padano cheese (odd but not unpleasant), dry cookies, paprika powder, wet bricks, cheese croquettes even somehow. Very crisp onset, very sharp and stingy, minerally carb, painful even at first; rounded sweetish 'pure barley' white-breadiness, smooth and cereally, 'baguette'-like almost, feeling quite pure and full for the style. Minerality continues to add 'fraîcheur' and balance, while hoppiness manifests itself in a very light creamy abbey cheese-like retronasal touch and mild 'grassiness' - while indeed the pure, minerally and white-bready-malty main character remains firmly in place, as it ought to be in a Helles. Honouring the Reinheitsgebot, this Glasgowian lager ticks all the boxes of its intended style and even does so with the finesse and 'Fingerspitzengefühl' it requires - a very rare feat outside of Bavaria (where I had many a Helles last year, some of lesser quality even than this one). Very accomplished, you do not often see such a successfully detailed German style lager being made by a non-German craft brewery, especially a British one...
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Honey-flavoured stout by this accomplished craft brewery in Scotland; from tap at the Maxime Hotel in Stonehaven, which had a whole series of Six Degrees North beers on tap - too bad I was too exhausted to taste more of them after the trip to Dunnottar Castle... Thin and open, pale greyish beige, cream-lacing head dissipating over a near-black robe with burgundy glow. Aroma of roasted walnuts, coffee grounds, chicory, charcoal, dried blackcurrants, petrichor, 'natural' iron (blood), cigar tobacco and perhaps a vague flowery aspect of honey tucked away in the background. Clean onset, somewhat neutral at first, stingy carbon dioxide adding consistent minerality; notes of blackcurrants and dried elderberries, low in sweetness but still some, with smooth, perhaps rather thin but nevertheless pleasantly oily mouthfeel. Dry-caramelly maltiness with layers of charred toast and cold black coffee on top, while this minerality keeps running underneath it all; dry dark berry notes linger till the end, but I believe these 'mellowing' accents may come forth from the honey, which is otherwise as good as undetectable. Long roasty bitter finish with prronounced herbal hop bitterness too, a tad ashy in the end but in any case agreeably drying. Flavoured with honey this stout may be, but it is very far removed from the pastry nonsense we see so often today: I think the honey has simply fermented away, leaving nothing but vague flowery and berry-like elements over what is essentially a well-crafted 'northern' style dry stout. Loved it.
Alengrin
updated a beer:
Six Degrees North Motion
brewed by Six Degrees North (Six°North)
6 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Pale Ale from Camden Town Brewery 6 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
APA by Camden Town, a brewery set up in 2010 and already falling into the clutches of AB InBev a mere five years later - a testimony to their commercial success at the time, I guess. Can from the Marks & Spencer supermarket in Aberdeen. Firm, medium, snow white head over a clear amber-tinged orange blonde robe. Aroma of orange zest, dried grapefruit peel, biscuit, unsalted peanuts, dry cereals, lemongrass. Clean onset, sweetish, hinting at apple peel and vague persimmon, medium carb with smooth, slick body; slender cereally and biscuity malt sweetishness under growing citrusy hops, hinting at orange pith, pink grapefruit and lemongrass with a faint dash of pine thrown in, providing medium long, dryish bitterness in which a sweet biscuity malt tone zings. Very clean and sleek even for the style, lacking a bit in hop delicacy and complexity, but considering this is, ultimately at least, an AB InBev beer, it was a whole lot better than expected - I might even repeat the experience if it were available in supermarkets here in Belgium. Enjoyable for what it is.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Extra Smooth from John Smiths 6 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8
Macro pale ale (or bitter) and one of the most popular in the U.K., yet one I oddly never had before – so glad I ticked one at last, at Slains in Aberdeen, a pub housed in an old church (formerly goth- and vampire-themed apparently, but this charming aspect of it has meanwhile been wiped away by new ownership). Very densely creamy ‘nitro’ head, membrane-like lacing, ecru-coloured and very long-lived; chill-hazed but actually clear, deep amber robe with even deeper bronze-ish glow. Aroma of soggy toast, peanuts, dry cookies, dried prune somehow, even fig jam, (over)ripe apple, clove and unexpected ‘Christmassy’ notes of vanilla, clove and gingerbread playing at the back. Cleanly fruity onset, a bit sweet with hints of apple, vague medlar and faint apricot, very ‘finely’ carbonated with utterly creamy body thanks to the nitro tap; slick peanutty, toasty, cookie-ish amber maltiness combining neatly with a soft floral hoppiness and a bitterness-enhancing minerality in an otherwise smooth, primarily malt sweet finish. Those subtle Christmassy notes I mentioned above did not really return in the flavour (luckily perhaps), but this one does feel smoother, simpler and, above all, sweeter than the average ‘real ale’ equivalent in the same segment. Hugely drinkable and quenching, though, so I do not even care that this product is now (since 2008) under Heineken: I absolutely enjoyed it. The setting and the company of my girlfriend may have helped, though.