Alengrin
Ghent, Belgium 🇧🇪 MemberOptions
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Alengrin
added a new beer
Piggly Wiggly
by
Brouwerij 't Verzet
4 weeks ago
Alengrin (11561) reviewed Arvaria Blond from De Graal 4 weeks ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
Blonde ale commissioned by a shop in Dendermonde specialised in gardening supplies, part of the Aveve chain; I bought my sample in the Aveve of Deinze. Comes from a steinie bottle with old-fashioned and quaint label (as usual with De Graal) and is allegedly hopped with Pekko, an American variety named after a Finnish deity - and one I frankly never heard of before. Egg-white, frothy, pillowy, thickly cobweb-lacing, thick and stable, very 'Belgian' head on a lightly misty yellow blonde robe with khaki tinge and a whirlwind of almost champagne-like sparkling, turning hazy further on. Aroma initially a bit muffled by the thick, dense head, but gradually unveiling impressions of spice crackers, halfripe banana, dried grapefruit peel, old juniper berries, coriander seed (actually added - at least this is what I assume to be the "spices" mentioned in the ingredients list), white bread crust, raw sweet potato, clove, raw (non-pickled) gherkin, mugwort, unripe hard peach, moist white pepper, dried apple peel, straw. Fruity onset, sweetish but not overly so, banana ester mingled with unripe peach, green pear and apple peel notes, very active carb but also very fine-bubbled so not too harsh yet still able to add a lot of minerality to a smooth, fluffy core, constructed of bready pale malts and bready yeast. Coriander seed flavouring keeps everything firmly in Belgian traditions while these Pekko hops make for a floral, ever so slightly citrusy, gently yet confidently bittering ending, through which the sweetness of the malts, spicy phenols (clove) and fruitiness also keep shining. I can understand the juniper berry association announced on the label, coming from the Pekko, but 'mint' and 'sage' seem a bit far-fetched (though I hasten to add that my own descriptions may often seem far-fetched as well). There are herbal accents for sure, along with a light citrusiness, but then the hops have been applied in a Belgian ale kind of way - i.e., not in an Anglo-Saxon IPA way, so they remain relatively modest in power and at the same time are a partially hidden from view by the yeasty effects and, more than anything else, the added coriander flavouring. Belgian blonde throughout, even in spite of the New World hop variety: a formula we have seen pop up in this country very often ever since U.S. style influences reached the shore of West Flanders or the depths of the Ardennes woods. I do not dislike this approach if it is well done, and De Graal obviously has the experience (active for more than two decades now) to execute an essentially simple Belgian blonde correctly. Too bad this formula is not the most suitable one to get to know a hop variety one is not familiar with: I guess I will have to find some clean IPA hopped with Pekko for that.
Alengrin
added a new beer
Arvaria Blond
by
De Graal
4 weeks ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
Whisky-infused dark ale by this still young and relatively unknown Limburg brewery; sadly the kind of whisky is not mentioned. Bottle from Drinks4U in Deinze. Foamy, deep yellowish beige, membrane-lacing, dense and frothy head, very dark chocolate brown robe - blackish almost, with hazy burgundy edges being unveiled under bright light. Aroma of caramel, dried prunes, brown bread pulp, whisky piercing through indeed (non-peated!), clove, old raisins soaked in jenever, old wrinkled autumn apples, wet toast, damp tree leaves, nutmeg, toffee, ground hazelnuts, vague notes of beef bouillon and tobacco. Sweetish onset but nothing really sugary, estery fruity notes of fig, dried plum and pear, light porcini-like umami aspect, medium carb; quite full, bit 'fluffy' mouthfeel, brown-bready and bread-crusty dark maltiness with caramelly core and toasty tail, the latter bringing in a drying bitterness matching with leafy, earthy hops as well as with the whisky, which establishes flavour and warmth without behaving too rough, even if a slight alcoholic wryness does linger at the back. Clove- and nutmeg-like phenols join in as well. The name did not inspire a lot of confidence ('verloren' meaning 'lost') and I usually tend to dislike or at least distrust all these liquor-infused beers, too: I still feel that generally speaking, they are the lazy and cheap answer to barrel ageing and usually the liquor is too present for me. Here, however, it is fairly well done, in spite of a light 'end astringency' still annoying me a bit. A bit more refined than many of its pumped-up, boozy, crude congeners, admittedly, and an enjoyable beer on a sombre November evening.
Alengrin
added a new beer
Verloren Donker Whisky Infused
by
Tom's Brouwerij
4 weeks ago
Alengrin (11561) reviewed Tsuchinshan ATLAS from Dok Brewing Company 4 weeks ago
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7
White IPA hopped with Merkur and Comet, the latter grown in Belgium on the one hand (representing Dok's part) and in Brazil on the other hand (representing Daoravida); with this amount of Comet hops, the beer's name echoes that of an actual comet, one which was apparently visible to the naked eye in September last year at least in certain parts of the world. Huge, densely creamy, tiny-bubbled, egg-white, membrane-lacing, very firm head, misty pale yellow robe with greenish tinge. Aroma of dried lemongrass, lemon zest, chives, dried chamomile, lemonbalm, soap, very light biscuit somewhere underneath, lime peel, pear, green guava, crisphead lettuce. Crisp, spritzy onset, guava and carambola notes but not too exuberant, restrainedly sweetish with smooth body, displaying clear soapy, slick wheatiness (even a slight wheat sourishness) along with sweeter pale maltiness, perfumed by very citrusy, zesty and somewhat floral hops, aromatically bringing back the lemongrass, lemon zest and lime peel as well as establishing a long, softly spicy bitterness, through which the sweet pale malts pierce a bit - but the hops are clearly developed enough to keep the whole beer firmly in IPA territory. The wheat shines through the way it should, while this lovely citric spiciness prevails in the hop department: this is a very clear, clean and expressive example of the white IPA concept for sure. Lovely - but perhaps more a spring beer than an autumn beer...
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7
West Coast style IPA by this extremely prolific Limburgian craft brewery, can from Drinks4U in Deinze, consumed three days before its expiration date. Slow gusher; foamy, very thick and rocky (hops-enhanced), pale greyish off-white, cobweb-lacing, firm head over a cloudy 'dirty' burnt orange robe with darkish ochre tinge. Aroma of orange peel, pomelo, lychee, wet bricks and gravel, toasted onion, pear, roasted shallots, white pepper, fried root parsley, old bread crust, great yellow gentian roots, some wet cardboard. Dryish yet yeasty onset, notes of persimmon, green olive-like umami, roasted pumpkin and fried carrot, spritzy carb, bready middle with a bread crust-like maltiness reinforced by bready yeastiness (which should not be present in this kind of beer) and bittered by a long, rooty, peppery, wormwoody, tonic water-like hoppiness with retronasal notes of dried grapefruit peel and dried southernwood; pronounced bready yeastiness persists, carrying the bitterness even further but also lending the finish a somewhat 'dirty' aspect. Boldly bitter old school IPA but more a Belgian IPA than a true West Coast IPA - perhaps because it should have been consumed younger than I did; still a very tasty beer, though, HopHemel rarely disappoints.
Alengrin has a new country beer tick achievement
Level 21 for Netherlands ticks with a total of 1100 from this country.
Geitenbreier from Moersleutel Craft Brewery was the one that did it!
1 month ago
Alengrin (11561) reviewed Geitenbreier from Moersleutel Craft Brewery 1 month ago
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
I love beer traditions and one of those is about the only Dutch one still surviving to this day: the bokbier season, once derived from German Bockbier but deviating a bit from there since the 19the century and several decades ago, the starting point of the Dutch beer revival. This revival has ultimately proven to be quite spectacular even compared with other western countries that underwent the great craft beer movement, and one of its proponents is of course De Moersleutel in Alkmaar in the north - so the educated beer lover should be curious about how they interpret the genre it all began with in the early eighties... Can from the Jumbo supermarket in Ghent (I think). Medium sized, tiny-bubbled, dense, pale greyish white, irregularly shred-lacing, stable head on an initially clear, warm caramel-bronze coloured robe with fiery vermillion glow. Quite earthy aroma of dry old caramel, tea bags, dry autumn leaves, lightly toasted grey bread, nutmeg, medlar straight from the tree, salsify, spongy dark plums, raw green kale leaf, parsley, beetroot, dust. Mildly fruity onset, spongy plum and halfripe medlar again, hints of apple peel and green pear, sharpish carb but okay for this style, smooth and essentially soft mouthfeel; rounded caramelly malt ensue with a brown-bready edge yet not descending into really 'deep' maltiness in spite of feeling more genuine and layered than the average 'macro' Dutch bok. Chestnutty sweetness hovers over it all, accentuating the autumny feeling that penetrates this beer, a feeling further deepened when the Tango hops arrive, not in their usual citrusy IPA way, but exhibiting their more piney and herbal (sage) side, albeit subtly so. They provide little bitterness, so this element comes from the toasty side of the malts more than the hops, although a 'deep' herbal bitter aspect of dark green tree leaves and forest weeds does linger. Earthy phenolic touches (nutmeg) colour the finishing stages along with this soft malt bitterishness and those herbal elements. Not a typical Moersleutel offering at all - which may explain the relatively low scores here - but if you think about it a bit more, this Geitenbreier (?) does take the general Dutch 'herfstbok' theme to a slightly different level without deviating from it too much. I think Moersleutel tries to prove here that they are perfectly capable of honouring their own traditions and what came before them without trying to usurp them completely - and for me they succeed. This is one herfstbok you can put in a tasting of classic congeners: it will not break out and do something so different that it can hardly be called a bok anymore, yet it does behave in a noticeably distinct way. Interesting way of balancing things - especially when coming from an established all-craft brewery like Moersleutel, which is better known for more 'elaborated' postmodern formulas. I like revisiting an old beer tradition every now and then and Moersleutel allowed me to do so with this one, even if it contains a hop variety marketed only in 2020...
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
The tenth barrel aged Duvel is upon us - yes, it is already November, time flies - and for an anniversary edition, it is only right that Moortgat came up with a liquor species they had not used before in this series: tequila (the old Champs song springs to mind for some reason), or at least "agave spirit" in general. Ornate luxury bottle from a fancy box as usual, bought at the Delhaize supermarket in Lokeren. Moussey, egg-white, fairly dense and thick, stable, cobweb-lacing head, slowly diminishing and eventually breaking open over an initially clear, warm old golden robe with even darker 'burnt orange' glow, almost amber but not quite, with tiny and disparate bubbles. Aroma of actual green agave leaf and agave syrup, dry biscuit, tequila I suppose but less expressively so than expected, peanuts, light wood, dried apple slices, old crumbled cake, body lotion, industrial caramel, candied persimmon, 'new' plasticine, wood glue, headache-inducing varnish, vanilla, rubber. Sweetish onset, very clean and sleek, spritzy carb but fine-bubbled, with rounded, vinous, full mouthfeel; notes of dried apple, green pear and vague persimmon whirl around but in a non-estery, 'dead' kind of way if you get my drift - and comparable to earlier editions. Smooth middle, full but noticeably thinned by the alcohol, with a simple and slick pale maltiness that has acquired something biscuity and peanutty due to the treatment the beer got. Solventy and boozy finish: some woodiness is surely there, even quite vanilla-like, but drying effects mostly come from a pronounced alcohol presence - as if some cheap liquor was poured into the glass. Within this crude booziness and headache-inducing solventiness, an admittedly interesting flavour lingers, 'green' as in succulent house plants cut through - not necessarily agave which is not really a house plant in our part of the world anyway, but more aloe-like, or mother-in-law's tongue. It reminds me of these aloe-based lotions and shampoos as well - not very appetising as such, I would say, but fascinating. Some grassy hops seem to have survived faraway in the background, but drown in all that crudeness. Expectations were low for this one and my intuition (or experience) proved me right: tequila barrel aged beers can be interesting for sure, rare as they are, but in the hands of a macro brewery like Moortgat and applied crudely and doubtlessly with more than one production shortcut, nothing truly good could ever come out of this. It feels cheap, unrefined, very solvent-forward and rough - even more so than the previous editions, most of which were fairly average at best. Like every year, I must conclude with even more conviction than in previous editions that this bottle certainly is not worth its price tag, even though the price was oddly lower than what I recall from the Duvel B.A. editions of past years. Especially that artificial lotion-like effect and the solvent (varnish) elements gave me a very cheap and industrial impression. I wonder why I keep bothering with this series - but given that this is the tenth one and I had them all, maybe the time has come to give up on it altogether...