Soft, session IPA with grapefruit, citrus, orange and mango notes. 

We are delighted to bring back our Belgique IPA for a 2024 showcase, with a slightly fruiter twist.  

As you know we are embracing the twinning of the beer cities of Norwich and Leuven – and this version of the beer was launched in 2023 to celebrate the twinning and  we were pleased that Dimitri from Adept Brewing had an input into the recipe – although he naturally wanted it to be a higher abv!  

However, we always see this brew as a quaffable 4.5% – albeit taking on board Dimitris other ideas. 

The brew is a fusion of Belgian blonde ale and an American IPA – take inspiration of fruity, spicy, sweet flavours of a typically Belgian style ale –and bring into that the fruity, hoppy flavours of an IPA – but tempered a bit to be robust but not in your face. 

Our Belgique gets the Belgian feel initially from the malt recipe, where we used a pilsner malt, blended with Vienna malt and oats as is typical in a lot of Belgian recipes. This will lend a soft, sweet malt flavour. Added to that will be a touch of Maris Otter and  heritage Chevalier malt – this will add further sweet biscuit tones.  

The malts give the beer a lush, light-golden colour and a creamy white head. 

As for the hops, we decided to use a mix of big hops which add mango and fruit overtones; Idaho 7, Comet and Eukanot

This blend of big  hops to give strong aroma and a hoppier bite than you would expect from a traditional Belgian IPA.  

Thought was given to these hops as well to give a Belgian feel and include –Citra (grapefruit, passionfruit) El Dorado (mango, peach, pineapple). The Harlequin  is also bold enough to join in with its American cousins and brings to the beer more passion fruit and peach notes. 

We, as an added authentic twist also added some orange peel as is typical in many a Belgian brew and will add some subtle complexity to the flavour and mouthfeel.  We also used some mango for an added twist.  

Enjoy. 

 

Available w/c 18 November