t Smisje + Dubbel IPA

Brewed by Brouwerij De Regenboog
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Assebroek-Brugge, Belgium

Chris_o’s GBBF Shindig August 08. Sweet, fizzy. yeasty, clove, light and pleasant. Lingering bitterness. Nice. Perhaps too sweet. Touch of lemon sherbet in the end.

330ml Bottle: Aroma of yeast, hops, nuts, herbs, light toasting, and some spices. Poured light brown/amber/orange in color with a large, creamy, foamy, pillowy, dense, off-white head that lasted throughout. Cloudy. Opaque. Very sparkling. Full of large and small particles throughout. Excellent lacing. Very nice looking. Flavor is lightly sweet and lightly bitter. Tastes of smoke, BBQ, yeast, herbs and some hops. Not bitter! Medium body. Average texture. Average carbonation. Smokey, slightly sweet finish. An IIPA???

Courtesy SoLan. Beautiful looking brew. The pour yields a cloudy, tangerine-golden body with a thick, foamy, well-retained, and cream colored head. The foamy displays excellent retention, sticking around until the very last sip and leaving jagged diagonal lines of lacing on the glass. The aroma starts out very strange, but improves with time. Weird, savory notes of beef jerky fade away into a more typical Belgian IPA profile of dry, dusty, peppery citrus hops with a lightly sweet, fruity malt base. Flavors are nicely balanced, sweet malts giving way to slightly hot, peppery, citrusy hops and a dry, yeasty finish. Medium-full on the palate, fine carbonation lends smoothness and drinkability despite the high ABV. This is kind of a strange one, but I dig it.

330 mL bottle. Pours very cloudy gold with visible swirls of yeast (kind of a cool effect) and an everlasting tower of whitish foam. Aroma is unsurprisingly yeasty, with strong bread and spice elements; also, there are some grassy and lightly fruity notes. The flavor is really bizarre. It’s super earthy with a lot of over-ripe fruit notes. All that yeast gives a sort of cookie-like taste, especially with the subtle malty sweetness. Toward the finish it gets bitter and herbal. There’s just a touch of alcohol burn, but not much. The aftertaste has a sort of unpleasant, unclean grassiness to it that I could live without. Pretty interesting beer, nonetheless.

330 ml. Opaque and golden pear-colored with a spewing meringue head that lasts and leaves cobwebs all over the place. Aroma has evergreen resin, musty pineapple-peach, banana-clove bubblegum and bread dough. Flavor is a fruity mix: pineapple, mango, banana, peach, bubblegum, but has a lot of resiny-peppery hops and some musty yeast that keeps the malt well in check. Some slight alcohol on the hoppy finish to dry as well, but overall a well-hidden 10%. Near-medium body is soft, lightly tingly and dryish.

33cl Bottle: Pours a slightly hazy orange bronze with a large clumpy-lacing froth of white head. Aroma of fresh resiny grassy grapefruity hops and a touch of floral peat moss with some sweet pale malty notes. Body starts with good fullness and rich, sweet biscuity pale malts with a nice balance of earthy citrusy hops before a bittersweet finish. A different kind of double IPA than its American counterparts, but still pretty enjoyable.

Draft at Beer Run in Charlottesville, poured into a snifter. Weird yellowish brown color (my friend said rotten banana) with a huge rocky head and great lacing. Slightly musty and very earthy and herbal aroma. Taste is earthy, herbal and a touch smoky. Notes of caramel, citrus and lemongrass. Bitter hops in the background. Definitely an odd brew.

11.2oz bottle. This one poured all head (and I mean all head). Eventually settled into a medium to deeper and cloudy golden color. Some big floaters. Aromas of spices (lots of pepper with cloves), yeast, bananas, and some citrus. Tastes of the same spiciness, fruity, some yeast, and very light citrus. Light to medium alcohol in the finish. I would have guessed this one was a Belgian Strong vs. an IIPA.