Alengrin
Ghent, Belgium 🇧🇪 MemberOptions
Activity
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Master (Hazy) West Coast IPA from De Meester 7 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
De Meester is beginning to dabble into IPA territory and this new one is apparently intended as a West Coast IPA - but then the brewer adds the word "Hazy" to the beer's name, uses Idaho 7 hops which were only invented in 2015, and advertises it as having "notes of tropical fruit". I need no further information to know that this overrated brewery has no clue as to what actual West Coast IPA was, but let us give this a chance for science. Can bought at De Picker in Zele. Frothy, egg-white, intricately 'Brugse kant'-like lacing, medium thick, firm yet gradually receding head over a hazy apricot blonde robe with peachy tinge, turning all cloudy or even 'milky' with sediment - the looks of any serious NEIPA, but not at all of a WCIPA. Aroma of pomelo, guava, blood orange zest, green mango, yellow kiwi (the Nelson Sauvin no doubt), pink pepper, tangerine, meringue, Graham crackers, touch of dried dill, diesel, cooked bell pepper, papaya, background notes of spoiled oatmeal porridge, mud and olive oil. Juicy onset with impressions of guava, tangerine, Zespri kiwi and halfripe mango, quite lively carbonated with some minerally 'stings' adding crispness; supple, medium full body. Cereally, porridge-like malt core drenched in citric and tropically-fruity hops, bursting with honey pomelo (flesh and zest), papaya, green mango and granadilla, as an underlying bitter aspect develops - yet remaining zesty and 'friendly', even if stretching out over the finish for quite a while. Ends a bit powdery but without hop burn, zesty and quite bright with a peppery twist - but remains firmly in the NEIPA territory, which is what bothers me the most here: West Coast IPA was the kind of IPA that was not only dominant when I began to venture into beer tasting, it was the only kind in existence, if its own double variant (think Pliny the Elder), the non-related original English IPA and the red and white variants are ignored (black IPA was still largely unknown in those days even though technically it already existed). Since several years, following a worldwide dominance of hazy NEIPAs, they have re-emerged, but in a world already ruined by hazy IPA dominance, what you get is NEIPA which inclines a bit more to the bitter side - not unlike Heady Topper or Focal Banger, in fact, the first NEIPAs ever. Obviously we are far removed from Heady Topper or Focal Banger here, and I could complain for many an hour about WCIPA not being what it used to be: I guess present-day craft brewers around the western world were scarcely around when actual WCIPA ruled the IPA world and think that making a NEIPA a bit more bitter makes it qualify as one. In that sense, this is indeed one of those contemporary WCIPAs again, but for me it will never qualify as one. That said, I have to admit that it has crispness, colour and vibrancy more than I was expecting from this brewery and is therefore not a bad IPA (generally speaking) at all; in fact, to Belgian standards, it has a very Anglo-Saxon feel to it and very little "Belgian IPA", if any at all. Bottom line, then: this is by no means a WCIPA for me, but it does qualify as a more than decent, pungent, slick 'true' IPA much more so than I was expecting. Perhaps this brewery's true strength does lie in the vast field of IPA after all? Let us see - but in the meantime, I cannot stress enough that this one is not a West Coast IPA regardless of which way you look at it.
gave a cheers!
Alengrin
added a new beer
Master (Hazy) West Coast IPA
by
De Meester
7 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Kasteel Tropical from Brouwerij Vanhonsebrouck 7 months ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 2 | Flavor - 1.5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 3.5
Kasteel Blond flavoured with fruit extracts (pineapple, passionfruit, peach and mango), one of the newest additions to the Kasteel range, but why? Maybe they want to elaborate on the commercial success of their Rouge, one of the most popular embodiments of that infernal 'style' since it was first launched in 2007, and decided that a red version should be joined by an 'innovative' yellow version? I see a parallel with those Tarot beers by Lindemans, Yell'Oh by Liefmans and a few others - so apparently this phenomenon of artificially flavoured, very sweet 'fruit' beers with a yellow hue rather than a red one is already spreading. This must be stopped before it spreads as widely as that dreadful rouge hype has done. As for this one: rather thin, quickly breaking, snow white, tiny-bubbled 'ring' for a head on a crystal clear, obviously filtered, pure yellow-golden blonde robe, looking like a standard macro lager in fact - which may be one of the motivations behind this evil new trend. Repulsive lemonade-like nose lacking anything beery, with impressions of granulated white sugar and Sprite the way I remember it from childhood, completely artificial extracts of yellow fruits with - admittedly - the 'core' features of all four abovementioned fruits being recognisable and none dominating another but also containing ripe pear as an unlisted fifth 'fruit', white soap, freshly ironed kitchen towels, breakfast cereals, hints of rubber band and children's medicine. Evidently white sugar-sweet onset, very Sprite-like, with very fizzy carb just like lemonade; after this onslaught of 'white' and sterile sugariness, the artificial fruit aroma parade starts, but it presents little else than fleeting 'perfumey' impressions of - in descending order of prevalence - peach, mango, passionfruit and pineapple with no complexity at all; it is as if these four fruits, all of which have been used in beer before in a more natural way, are reduced to waferthin caricatures of themselves, worse even than in the most industrial and cheapest fruit jam imaginable. This sugared fruit juice parade moves over a thin thread of basic pale cerealliness but do not expect to taste anything even remotely 'beery'; the finish adds only an odd rubbery element as well as something, frankly, a bit 'stinky', like a contaminated ditch almost devoid of life. Hops remain completely unseen and unnoticed, while that white sugariness sticks to the teeth a bit. I was not expecting anything natural and I (vaguely) remember how 'basic' the flavour of Kasteel Blond is, but I was not expecting even its most basic beer features to be totally drowned in this awful combo of industrial sugar and industrial fruit 'perfumes'. I cannot think of a fate gruesome enough to punish the guy at Van Honsebrouck who came up with this infernal idea - but the sobering truth is that probably this creation from beer hell has the potential to break through as a huge commercial success among youngsters who still have a lot to learn, in the same way rouge got so big that you can buy it from almost any supermarket today. This is the world we live in today, and I guess I have grown too old now to passively undergo it... But I digress: I hope these yellow sugar-'fruited' brews do not make it into a new big trend (I claim the term 'jaunes' here and now) but chances are that they will, and if they do, I would even recommend Kasteel Rouge over this one, just do not ask me why.
gave a cheers!
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Dubbel from De Achelse Kluis 7 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5
I spent a holiday in the beautiful province of Limburg back in August 2019 and visited the Achelse Kluis abbey again that time to sample their beers from tap - but on the same evening, upon returning to Sint-Truiden and enjoying a wonderful evening at Gebrande Winning, got talking there with a representative of the brewery, who informally told me that the brewery was soon going to be a laymen brewery, as it was already clear at the time that the last trappist monks were about to leave the monastery. Lo and behold, exactly one year the last of them left for Westmalle - so that by definition, their operations ceased to be trappist operations. The brewery was sold to a private investor who so far is determined to keep the name Achel alive as a beer brand, managing to get it officially recognized as a brand of 'authentic abbey beers' - and unusual ones at that, because even though physically not much has changed, they are brewed within the walls of the abbey... Claiming not to have touched the recipes upon the time of his purchase of the brewery, I was eager to check for myself if indeed the renewed Achel Dubbel and Tripel are still the same as the Achel 8 Bruin and Achel 8 Blond I have enjoyed so many times in the past couple of decades. This one produces only a thin and loose, pale greyish off-white, open, tiny-bubbled, fizzing head during pouring - not being very stable, but I recall from twenty-odd years ago that this was not the case with Achel 8 Bruin either; initially clear, burgundy-bronze robe with copper-reddish glow, darker and misty with sediment. Aroma of wet pure caramel, dried apricot, dark candi sugar, prune, brown bread pulp, ruby port, candied fig, old raisins, 'kramiek', vague hazelnut, touch of cinnamon faraway in the background, clove. Sweet onset though not in a cloying way, candied fig, dark raisin, medlar, dried peach and some baked banana, moderate in carbonation with smooth, slick body, actually on the thin side for this ABV. Caramelly maltiness fills the middle with a brown-bready core and a thinly hazelnutty edge, but the whole remains remarkably light-bodied and it is easy to determine that most of it consists of candi sugar, which also leaves its somewhat spicy, sweet trail behind. Soft floral hops in the finish add mild bitterishness but the caramelly and candi-sugary sweetness remain the dominant factors; vague clove-like phenols appear retronasally as in any typically Belgian dubbel or quad, while the 'tail' is warmed by port- and eau de vie-like alcohol. Straightforward, sweet and easygoing, yet 'natural' oldskool Belgian dubbel: is that not what Achel 8 Bruin used to be? Too bad I did not stock one away to compare, but merely from memory the differences with its trappist predecessor seem limited: this beer may have lost its crown due to a simple change in who makes it, it inherently still reminds me of the earliest days in my beer tasting career, delving into the then-available trappist diversity and having the original Achel on many occasions. Granted, this one does not have the gravitas, body and complexity of its elders (like Westvleteren 8 or Rochefort 8), but it does convey a very genuine feeling - I personally think that its trappist pedigree, having come to a halt five years ago, helps it to hold up strongly amidst its new brethren, the other 'recognized' abbey beers. Compare this with e.g. Leffe Brune or even Tongerlo Dubbel - I rest my case. Purely from memory, I would say this new 'abbey version' of a former trappist beer seems a thinner, sweeter and more one-dimensional than its own forefather, but I still got some distant Achel vibes - I visited the place three times in total during my 'formative years' as a beer taster and keep fond memories of it, so I admit I may be biased here...
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Checkpoint from Dok Brewing Company 7 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5
Belgian 'lichtblond', as the old OBP would say, but of the bitter kind, so I have hopes of encountering something along the lines of Reninge Bitter Blond, Bink Blond, Ara Bier or even XX Bitter, who knows... Comes from a can, contains raw wheat (atypically) and is apparently a collab with Boundary, one of the best known microbreweries in Northern Ireland. Huge, foamy, snow white, 'bath-moussey', cobweb-lacing, slowly and gracefully receding head over a hazed yellow blonde beer with warmer apricot tinge. Aroma of green pear, dry spiced crackers, chamomile, white clover flowers and sweetclover, dried grapefruit rind, bitter honey, ciabatta, unripe peach, apple peel, something vaguely guava-ish in the background (very subtle yet still quite refreshing). Crisp, fruity onset, very restrainedly sweetish with notes of unripe apricot, some green banana and hard pear, but also a vague echo of citrus fruit (grapefruit pith) announcing what is to come; lively, minerally, I suppose 'Belgian' carbonation with 'crystalline' effect without becoming actually painful. Smooth grainy pale maltiness with a thin white-bready edge from the unmalted wheat, which adds a very soft, very 'basic' and 'unspoken' sour touch but close to none of the soapiness I tend to associate with it; instead, the flavours are bundled together to a drying, hoppy and indeed notably bitter, long finish, in which, aromatically speaking, floral aspects (field flowers like white clover, chamomile, white campion) meets grassiness (tall oat-grass) but no New World fanciness, though a vague echo of dried citrus zest may be there. The spicy, long, rooty bitterness never becomes too herbal or wry: though extended for a long time, it remains remarkably elegant, carrying with it these modest fruity notes and sweetish pale malty flavours. This is actually very well made: simplicity is never easy, contradictory as that may seem, but here Dok and Boundary present a deceptively 'easy' beer perfected to the last detail. The bitterness is long and strong, but remains elegant and mitigated by well-measured 'wheatiness' and fruitiness; though perhaps far less spectacular in its basic make-up than the many IPAs, sours and stouts both Dok and Boundary have brought forth in their years of existence (eight and eleven respectively), it is an easygoing yet nowhere boring quencher made so technically perfect that it would not bother me to drink it all night on a summer afternoon.
Alengrin
updated a beer:
Checkpoint
brewed by Dok Brewing Company
7 months ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
The ‘original’ modern Ghent city brewery, Gruut, now housed adjacent to the renewed Baudelo park in Ghent, has a longstanding habit of creating unique one-offs under the ‘Maîtresse’ flag; I had several of these in the past years, but honestly I have no idea at all how many different ones have been created so far, must be many dozens, but even the brewery itself was unable to provide an exhaustive list upon request. This is one of several stout-inspired variants so far though admittedly the 'Maîtresse' mention is not present; whatever the case, it is flavoured with chestnut, not such a crazy idea as it may seem, seen how Italian microbrewers have been dabbling with this ingredient already in the late nineties (with various results). Thanks nathanvc for sharing this one. Medium thick, rocky, irregular, pale beige, ‘plastery’ lacing head over a dark bronze beer with mahogany-brown glow. Aroma of wild blackberries, elderberries straight from the bush, wet old caramel candy, beech nuts rather than chestnuts, forest floor, brown bread crust, milk gone sour, dried mushrooms, dark green tree leaves, old coffee grounds, old liquorice candy. Estery onset, lactic too so clearly infected – by the added chestnuts, I presume; again impressions of wild blackberries and elderberries, vague pear, fizzy carb, smooth body. Caramelly core with brown-bready edges, notably nutty too in a ‘dirty’ way – again, wild beech nuts and hazelnuts harvested from a damp forest floor in autumn rather than the sweetness I was expecting from chestnut. Quite dirty, messy finish, very earthy, ‘mouldy’, with bitter coffee grounds and earthy hops mingling with that ‘milky’, dull put persisting sour effect. Infected, dirty and leafy ‘sour stout’ of sorts – unintentionally sour, that is. This should have been clean, oily and bittersweet but feels nothing like a present-day stout of any kind, more an infected, homebrewed attempt at dubbel… Clearly this could not have been the intention. More often than not, these Gruut one-offs are weird, technically flawed and missing their target – this is one of those cases again.
gave a cheers!
Alengrin
added a new beer
Chestnut Stout
by
Gruut Gentse Stadsbrouwerij
7 months ago
Alengrin (11609) reviewed Planckgas from HopSaSam 7 months ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 8
Dark barleywine aged on oak chips, created by HopSaSam brewer Sam Vanderstraeten as a surprise gift to his good friend Erwin Plancke, the current president of the Gentse Biervereniging (Ghentian Beer Club), under the slogan that people should be celebrated while they are still alive, whereas in practice words of praise are often uttered with the greatest conviction at their funeral. With this playful idea in mind, the bottles were even equipped with a strand of hair-like fabric representing Erwin’s formidable beard… Tasted at – where else – the surprise party for Erwin where this beer was presented to him and the rest of the club. Medium thick, quite firm and frothy, pale mocha-tinged beige head over a very dark caramel brown robe with ochre-ish edges. Inviting bouquet of dry caramel, vanillin from the oak chips (more pronounced than usual when only chips are used), ground pistachio nuts, almonds, brandy, toasted bread, dried fig, a vague touch of liquorice somewhere, dark chocolate accent, dried apple peel. Sweet onset in a clean, well-measured way, nowhere sticky, dark fruitiness of dried prunes and figs, hint of dates and some baked banana, softishly carbonated with smooth, full body, gliding heavily over the tongue leaving a trace of toffee, nut bread, a bit of toast and a bit of chocolate, with slight tannic oak effects in its wake, along with retronasal vanilla; additional whiffs of strawberry, raisin, liquorice and bayleaf join in, establishing a rich, long finish, warmed up by brandy-like alcohol which nowhere becomes astringent. I have been following HopSaSam with great interest ever since it came onto the market not with the umpteenth blonde or tripel, but with the beautifully crafted, stylishly packed and totally unexpected Nonniversaire barleywines – now that was something else, and Sam has been continuing on this path ever since. As one of the more idiosyncratic and inspired brewing projects in East Flanders (or Belgium in general), it just had to be them to honour the great Erwin Plancke, whom I am lucky enough to have known in person for almost ten years now myself (and at sight over thirty years, as I recall him being quite a remarkable figure when he was a fellow student at the Ghent university). So cheers Erwin, you are already memorable enough without having a specialty beer attached to your name, but this is truly a great gift from a friend and well deserved.