Alengrin
Ghent, Belgium 🇧🇪 MemberOptions
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Alengrin (11609) reviewed Dots from Beak Brewery 6 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Hazy IPA by a brewery in Sussex, hopped with Citra, Comet and Cashmere. Egg-white, shred-lacing, moussey, medium thick head over a hazy yellow blonde beer. Aroma of lemon peel, pomelo flesh, Key lime pie, green melon, granadilla, dank sweat, overripe onion, yarrow, meadowsweet, starfruit, plantain. Juicy onset, starfruit, yellow kiwi, guava and pomelo notes, softish carb, sweetish but not overly so; supple, doughy, bit creamy pale maltiness with a bread-crusty edge, drenched in citrusy, slightly peppery and lightly tropical hoppiness, juicy and mildly bitterish, adding retronasal aromas of guava and pomelo again along with notes of lemongrass, lime zest and slight coconut milk somewhere (the Cashmere no doubt). Ends just a tad too sweet for my personal liking, but otherwise this is a typical, well-constructed and correctly executed NEIPA - not adding much to the already vast ocean of hazy IPAs, but enjoyable for what it is.
Alengrin has a new beer style achievement
Level 2 for Pale Ale - New England / Hazy ticks with a total of 10 ticks of this sub style.
Our Woods from Polly's Brew Co. was the one that did it!
6 months ago
Alengrin has a new country beer tick achievement
Level 3 for Wales ticks with a total of 15 from this country.
Our Woods from Polly's Brew Co. was the one that did it!
6 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Our Woods from Polly's Brew Co. 6 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
Hazy APA hopped with Citra, Simcoe, Wai-ti and the spotlighted Motuere, a new New Zealand dual-purpose variety launched in 2018 and described as passionfruit- and grapefruit-like in aroma. Can from the Marks & Spencer supermarket in Aberdeen. Thick and foamy, snow white, pillowy, cobweb-lacing head, cloudy pale straw blonde robe with olive-greenish tinge. Aroma of lime zest, chervil, sweet cicely, unripe guava, maracuja, lemongrass, light gypsum, white bread dough, green banana, chamomile flowers, withering leek and a light but persistent sweaty dankness in the background. Clean onset, quite crisp for the style and low in sweetness, with some green banana, hard pear and starfruit associations; lively carb through a lightly powdery, somewhat creamy-oily body. Slender white-bread-doughy and sweetish-grainy pale maltiness quickly moving to a greenish but aromatic finish, providing impressions of lime peel, lemongrass, green kiwi, unripe guava, raw chervil and deep-fried parsley, with the citric aspect (the lime peel) eventually becoming dominant. The hop combo here feels more grassy and crisp than expected, with little 'tropicalness' - different from what I was expecting, but pleasantly surprising in that sense. The bitterness is a bit powdery, mild but effective, a tad green-peppery and lingering - but the soft 'bed' of white bread dough-like maltiness also continues, preventing the finish from becoming really IPA-like and thus keeping everything within the acceptable limits of what can be called an APA - a "NZ" variant of it at least, less exuberant and sultry than many of its congeners, but refreshingly 'green' and cleverly constructed. Lovely, intelligent beer if you prefer your IPAs and / or APAs crisp and quenching.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Weekend Hooker from Brew Toon 6 months ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 6.5
Pale lager by a craft brewery stressing its use of cartoons on its labels and cans - something literally hundreds of craft breweries around the world do these days, but anyway. Can from an organic shop in Aberdeen. Moussey and frothy, snow white, pillowy, lacing head slowly diminishing over a clear pale yellow-blonde beere with lively visible sparkling. Aroma of soggy white bread (old bread in this case), flour, young Gouda cheese somewhere, minerals, plaster, damp cotton cloth, wet grass, paper glue, field flowers, oatmeal. Clean onset, sweetish and simple graininess (no esters here so in any case tasting like an actual lager), minerally carbonated - a bit stingy even but acceptable for its style; very slick white-bready pale maltiness with faint glimpses of soapy wheat while the oatmeal, also included in the ingredients list, remains all but indetectable. Develops gentle yet persistent floral and somewhat grassy hop bitterness in its tail, eventually even quite long-stretched and a bit resinous, with adequately drying effect. Somewhat unassuming at first sight, but the wheat and oatmeal do add slickness enhancing drinkability and hops have been applied a tad more generously than is typical for the 'macro' representatives of the species. For an intentionally straightforward craft pale lager, this is okay, nothing more, nothing less.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Trawlerman from Brew Toon 6 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
Hazy APA by a Scottish craft brewery I never heard of before; I guess the brewery's name refers to the cartoons on their cans. From an organic shop in Aberdeen. Off-white, shred-lacing, medium thick, irregular, opening head on a hazed straw blonde beer, turning more ochre-ish and beige further on, ending up all murky when all the deposit has gone into the glass. Aroma of lime zest, armpit sweat, chamomile tea, green onions, pomelo, sugared cucumber, yarrow, rainwater, diluted lemon juice, diesel, acacia honey. Soft onset, a bit juicy but generally quite clean with a 'green' kind of feel, medium carb, slender body, a bit powdery; herb cracker-like, thin pale maltiness flavoured with dank, grassy and citric hoppiness, adding elements of young mugwort, cucumber, lime peel, lemon zest and green bell pepper. These hops provide a long, pleasantly drying spicy bitterness, more so than expected, but perhaps the term 'hazy' used by the brewery creates expectations of tropical fruit, which was not really present. Atypical for a hazy APA, ending with a slight hopburn, lacking a bit of body and rather 'green' in its hop aromas, this is somewhat (too) straightforward and thin for what it set out to be, though it remains 'correctly' brewed and enjoyable for what it is.
Alengrin
updated a beer:
Trawlerman
brewed by Brew Toon
6 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Bang! from Stroom Brouwers 6 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Imperial stout aged in whisky barrels created by Stroom here in Ghent earlier this year; can from the Delhaize supermarket at the Sterre. Thick and frothy, crackling, pale brownish-beige, somewhat rocky and sturdy, uneven-bubbled, irregular but stable head on an initially clear, very dark chocolate brown beer, in practice as good as black but with mahogany glow at the edges. Aroma of butterscotch, 'Haagse hopjes', liquorice, 'Koetjesreep', toffee, indeed whisky piercing through, nougat, oak furniture (but not very strong on the vanillin this time), brown sugar, fig syrup, candied dates, molasses, brown wok sauce, fresh bayleaf, vague notes of peppermint candy, clove and chewing gum. Dense, sweet onset, candied dates, fig compote, pear syrup and a slight sourish edge (ripe blackberry), medium carbonated in a 'fat', oily, almost somewhat syrupy body; layers of toffee, caramel candy, nougat, milk and eventually dark chocolate unfold, moving from sweet to more toasty bitter, but never becoming roasted and coffeeish (alas, I am inclined to add). Strong tannic woodiness in the end along with a strong whisky factor, both in retronasal aroma and in flavour, but also in peppery alcohol; tea-like herbal hops provide underlying bitterness more than the malts, while these clove-, fresh bayleaf- and liquorice-like aspects join in playfully. The whisky unfortunately also brings a strong solventy effect, as in fresh paint or even nail polish, which may be shaved off a bit by letting the cans rest in a cellar for half a year more. Needs some more finetuning, but the basic structure is okay - just a bit too solventy, sweet and boozy for me. I think adding more roasted bitterness and less whisky would bring significant improvement.
Alengrin (11609) reviewed DDF M*rs Bar from Vault City 6 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Ultra-strong Scottish pastry stout aiming to evoke deep-fried Mars bars, something I heard about but never encountered, not even during my trip to Scotland from which I returned yesterday - but I was happy to forget about that and move straight onto this beer, sampled from tap at BrewDog Castlegate, the fancy BrewDog café right across Aberdeen's impressive city hall, replacing the old 'Flagship', their very first café elsewhere in the city (now gone). Loose and open, irregular arrangement of small yellow-beige bubbles around the edge, dissolving quickly into nothing over a pool of sheer blackness - though a subtle shade of mahogany brown is still present. Intense bouquet of chocolate ganache or indeed Mars bars, caramel sauce, Belgian chocolates, Irish cream liqueur, Sachertorte, blackberry coulis, butterscotch, sticky toffee pudding, nougat, pecan, granola, dried fig - and indeed Mars bar. Densely sweet onset, a bit sticky but not too annoyingly so, fig compote, date jam and blackberry sauce notes, softly carbonated with obviously very thick, oily, rather syrupy mouthfeel, an intense play of toffee, chocolate fondant, ganache and strong butterscotch - the choco-caramel combo indeed reminding one of Mars bars. A light toasty bitterishness lingers at the back and provides some balance, along with a faint dash of spicy hops, but these elements are cleverly hidden behind the curtain, letting the Mars bar effect speak for itself, highlighted by unsurprisingly pronounced, yet well-positioned and never astringent coffee liqueur-like alcohol - oddly not nearly as obtrusive as one would expect at this strength. A liquid Mars bar indeed, this over-the-top pastry stout is not just a formidable construction of a beer, but a very intelligent one as well, with the right elements placed in the right position, thereby avoiding the overt stickiness or alcoholic wryness one could encounter in a similar beer by a less skilled brewery. Cheers to Vault City (and Neon Raptor) for that alone, because whether you like this kind of almost farcical beers or not, there is no denying that this is a technical 'tour de force'.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8
Saison by Senne - I assume brewed especially for the occasion - blended with Cantillon lambic, referring to the old Belgian tradition of 'versnijbier' or, in French, 'bière de coupage'; created for this year's Quintessence, a prestigious biennial event held by Cantillon. Medium thick, off-white, busily lacing (in 'arches'), tiny-bubbled and densely structured, fairly stable head on a misty warm orangey peach blonde robe with brownish-amber tinge, turning more cloudy and ochre with sediment. Aroma of bread crust, soggy rusk, dried grapefruit peel, hints of passata and fried tomato skin, old dried wormwood leaves, tellicherry pepper, cold pumpkin soup, vague wood in the background, dried dandelion, something very faintly smoky (burnt hay), old wrinkled autumn apples, vague clove. Estery onset, dryish though, hinting at dried apple, unripe peach and dried lingonberries, minerally carbonated with this minerality persisting till the end; smooth bready maltiness, bread crust, rusk and vague biscuit, indeed soured by the lambic, with adds not only a thinly lemon-ish tartness and sour grape-like vinosity, but also glimpses of Brettanomyces funk (wet leather, damp hay) and woodiness. Spicy elements here and there, as in white pepper, clove and dandelion, eventually merge with a rooty, long, resinous wormwoody and somewhat grapefruity hop bitterness. Most 'historical' coupage beers combined a dark ale (dubbel) with lambic to create something oud bruin-like, but this belongs more to a Brussels tradition Senne is so skilled at, adding a certain fraîcheur and citric tartness to a spicy, earthy, bitter saison; the lambic does not overpower, though, making me wonder what its Brett will do to this blend after a year or two of cellaring. In this relatively young form, it is more Senne than Cantillon, but the latter is certainly present and the two combined make for a sturdy, dry yet elegant and quenching saison of sorts.