t Smisje + Dubbel IPA

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

(33cl bottle) Cloudy, orange colour with a huge and dense blonde foamy head. Yeasty and moderately sweet malty aroma with floral and citrus-fruity, slightly zesty hoppy notes, accompanied by spicy accents. Sweet and slightly bitter flavour, full bodied with a lively carbonation. Yeasty (in the Belgian way) malty base with distinctive notes of grape fruits and floral hoppy notes. Sweet and slightly bitter, malt-accented and moderately fruity finish with a good dash of flowery hops and peppery spice. One of the better Smisje brews (15.II.09).

Draft at Max’s 72 Hours of Belgium. Medium golden color with a good bit of yeast in the pour. Grassy hop aroma that complemented the grassy hop bitterness. Light bitterness compared to American DIPA. Good amount of sweetness to match the hops. A nice switch from traditional Belgians.

Bottle @ ´t Brugs Beertje. Pours hazy with yeast particles. The white head is creamy and cloudy. The aroma is very hoppy, fruity and floral. It has caramelly malts, grape fruits, raisins and floral notes. The flavor is not very bitter for a DIPA. It has plenty of aromatic hops, sweetish caramelly malts and slightly sugary sweetness. The palate is foaming but very soft. Medium bodied and sticky for lips.

(Sample Date: 11/30/2008 Source:Mekong) Big Belgian yeast character in the nose with light fruits and spice. Cloudy yellow/orange with a fluffy white head and lots of lacing. Belgian yeast spicyness with lots of spicy hop flavor and bitterness.

From BierKoning. A wonderful product. Murky golden body. Hoppy nose. Lots of fruits and spices in the aroma, and also packed into the taste. Some caramel too. Quite warming and nice.

This is carbonated enough that this beer spits up a ton of sediment from the bottom of the glass to cloud up what started a clear beer. A careful pour still sees me with five-fingers of (including a full finger above the rim of my 25l tulip glass) frothy, off-white head. The beer is a deeply murky, honey color that shows an opaque, yellow gold color when held up to the light. The aroma smells of tropical fruit, lychee, apricot, candied tangelo peel and a bunch of fermentation character. Earthy aromatics, musty black pepper, an almost coriander note, some peat like smokiness, musty biscuit notes and a general spicy phenolic character (including a bit of clove). As this warms up it almost picks up some woody, almost rosemary like notes to it towards the finish. The hop character is definitely dominant, but the fermentation character adds a lot of complexity and a nice backdrop to the hop aromatics.

Effervescent and prickly from the carbonation, the beer has a definite sweetness to it that is much a product of the fruity hops used as from residual sweetness. This beer actually is quite light, surprisingly so for its strength, but it is perfect for something with India Pale Ale on the label (actually even light for your average regular IPA). The flavor sees a big hit of hop flavors throughout; up front are notes of lychee, ripe apricot, sweet tropical fruit and super ripe tangelo lead into a touch of herbal and pine like flavors towards the middle and finish. There is also a fair amount of bitterness to this beer, but it is easy to overlook with all the other flavors going on. This has lots of yeast-driven spiciness to it; persistently phenolic with some tongue numbing turpenes and clove, there is also a nice pepper note here, and earthy, musty, almost coriander spiciness towards the finish. At times this has quite a bit of herbal character that is accentuated by both hop and fermentation components. As the beer warms up the phenolics and clove start to give the hops a run for their money though not quite.

My second pour is even murkier than the first, it doesn’t seem to affect the flavor too much though; perhaps adding a touch of yeast bite. This has an amazing fresh hop character to it, I was expecting this to be a little old and not nearly as hoppy as this still is.

The head is near perfect with lots of dense froth that slowly recedes with lots of lacing and forming of interesting structures; if the beer wasn’t so murky it would be visually stunning. This really hides the alcohol quite well. I like how the hop character mixes with the woody, earthy, peppery spice notes. Quite the dynamic beer, I am really enjoying this; it drinks way too easily though as I could easily (and dangerously) knock back a 750ml bottle of this, even still I am a bit disappointed I only have a 330ml bottle.

A mix of belgium yeast and west coast IPA hoppiness, which I personally like. tried at Bruges T’Bertje in bottle served with a smile by Daisy :-)

Bottled. Poured hazy medium golden with a tall, fluffy, remarkably well-retained cap of white head.. sticky lacing as it descended and lots of rising carbonation. The aroma picked up spicy yeasty notes upfront with some coaxing by the alcohol presence.. paler malts with a light fruit character supported.. more of the fruit with warmth, and definite oxidation present.. odd. The flavor had the same light fruits at the core along with some slightly darker-skinned ones.. tacky caramel sweetness on the edges with dry cloves and floral bitterness.. finished warm and dry with the aforementioned oxidation. Medium-bodied with higher carbonation on the palate.. quite dry with a not-too-pleasant sourness that kept popping up.. sharp finish. Weird one that I probably wouldn’t drink again.