La Brooklynette / La Gnomette Part II

Tap at BT. Orange amber body with a thin off white head. Citrus with earthy and floral hops. Nice spices, and some strong hop resins to finish.

Tap at the Blind Tiger for the Brooklyn event. Very hoppy aroma, a touch of sweet and spice. Bacony, dank, peppery, deeply and wonderfully complex. I could smell this thing for ages. The flavor is sweet, savory, Belgian-inspired, with a thick body and good carbonation. Fairly mild, despite strong hops. Very interesting.

Draught. Pours a cloudy pale gold with almost no head. Nose is fruity, candy pineapple and citrus hops, quite sweet. Taste is a huge candy pineapple sweetness up front paired with citrusy hop note, with the spicy yeast presenting itself with a candy ginger note. Resiny pine hops emerge as the flavor progresses, lingering on the finish with more of the sweet candy note. Alcohol is present, but doesn’t get in the way. Mouthfeel is full bodied and slightly syrupy with subdued carbonation. Huge beer, unbelievably sweet, but not overly complex - but undeniably different.

Pours a slightly fogged gold with minimal head. Nose is strong with a tangerine/nectarine kind of thing. Flavor is beautifully hopped. It seems like the hops are well mixed with the Belgian yeast aspects. You can tell there is 9% alcohol on this one. It is a very slight detractor from the overall, though. Feel is very smooth liquid and nice on the carbonation too. Absolutely amazing beer. You don’t see a lot of IPAs in the Belgian style, but I would consider this an outstanding example. A complete travesty this is not mass produced.

"The Final Batch" Hazy oranged colored pour with small head. Florally, pine cone aroma with a strong citrusy, perfumy flavor.

Sampled on 2/16/07 on tap at Max’s 3rd Annual Belgian Beer Festival: Slightly hazy dark golden bronze appearance has a thin, wispy-lacing frothy white head. Aroma of sweet bready Belgian malt with some light fruity notes. Body starts full and pale malty sweet with some biscuity and caramely notes with a smooth toasty, bready yeasty finish. Nicely-balanced, an authentic malty Belgian strong ale, although I don’t see why this is classified as an IPA.

Slight hazy pale with small white head. The aroma is light, banana, bread and honey. The flavor is pepper, honey, pear, apple and corriander. Medium light body with sparkling/prickly carbonation.

draught at ZBF 2007: Hazy summer late afternoon glow with large thick meringue head. First impressions on the aroma was hops, hops, sweet summer fruits, slight eau de cologne, and umm... hops. After the first approach I began to notice some stale, sorry "aged," hop aroma. Expecting to be overwhelmed by a harsh hop explosion, I was delighted to be met with a wonderful balanced (well... maybe not balanced) creamy libation. Sweetness, followed by bitterness, spice, green hop, then mellow hop. Hints of orange sherbert coming from deep within. The hops offered a nice interuption amongst many sticky sweet beers at the ZBF.