Hapkin

Brewed by Alken-Maes (Heineken)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Jumet, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

Bottle at Milk Factory, Vondel Park. Really nice sweet, and refreshing ale. Fruity with candy tastes. Quite textured. I was pleasanly surprised for a Maes beer such as this. Not sure why all the earlier focus on Duvel, there are so many Belgian beers, Duvel just one of very many.

Bottle. Aroma of noble hops backed by sugar and spice. Also some ripe stone fruit. Light brassy gold color with a white head that’s respectable, but doesn’t seem to lace. Wrong. Suddenly it made the effort. Medium bodied. Lightly carbonated. Sweet candy with malt and brown sugar too. Mouthsmackingly, astringently dry and there is a nice little floral bitter. Being two bombers down, I’d say this is just marvelous. Relatively dry, light and really refreshing. The flavors vary as time goes by.

UPDATED: OCT 25, 2007 Lys gul øl Duft af æblesaft. Smag af sød frugt og syrlig - spritet og stærk.

I think this beer is a bit of a weaker brother of Duvel. Nice taste but it just can’t compete.

Alken-Maes’ Hapkin is best served at cellar temperatures (46-50°F) from a signature Hapkin axe embossed pear shaped, stemmed glass. This wicked Belgian Golden Ale pours up lively with a lacy, but short lived white head that sits craggily over a bright golden body. The enviting aroma is filled with a nice intermingling of earthy (catty, grassy/haylike, floral/perfumy), spicy (lemon pepper, turmeric, vanilla) & fruity (dried apricot, banana, peach pit) estery notes. There’s just a hint of alcoholic warmth along with some delectable honeyish malt notes underlying the spicy, Noble Saaz hop accenuated aroma.The delicately balanced flavor starts off rather fruity with a soft, light graininess that carries into a slightly earthy, spicy hop influenced bitterness which takes over to deliver a harmonious finish with a devilish alcoholic warmth. Hapkin is a lovely elixir that shows just how devilishly drinkable this style can be. Michael Jackson refers to this one, as one of the "Wickedest beers in all of Belgium" and I couldn’t agree more. Here’s to the former Count of Flanders, Boudewijn Hapkin with the Axe and his namesake beer... don’t lose your head! CHEERS! Beertracker

You’ve got to give credit to those belgians, they sure give good head! Really thick and clingy meringue that just would not quit, with a peachy yellow, not quite opaque brew underneath.
Yeasty, with sort of a lactic twang, and vegetal finish that reminded me of asparagus.
Really lively carbonation that seizes your tongue. Yeasty and quite boozy, especially in the aftertaste, that eventually became a bit much for me. It’s sort of a Duvel knockoff that left me lukewarm.

My Bottom Line:
Dry straw and timid grassy hops are balanced within this expansive carbonation and slender body. There’s nothing hedonistically wrong with this Duvel knock-off wannabe.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-Frothy foam bobs atop the hazy pale golden.
-It finishes quite dry, but the hops don’t rise enough.
-The haystack/straw hat component is crunchy and satisfying.
-This is clean, drinkable, flawless, but not memorable by any means.

Bottle; best before Sept.’07.

[Sampled at Rik l’Artisan’s 40 years birthday.]
Hmmmm. Very special perfumed brew, which needs time and samples to coorporate with. Tastes better after acclimatisation. Spicy, carbonated, yeast, flowers. A nice beers for people from Flandren!