Struise / Three Floyds Shark Pants

Brewed by De Struise Brouwers
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Oostvleteren, Belgium

Serve in Shaker, Snifter

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

Bottle at home in London. An interesting beer. Pours red-gold with a huge, off-white head. Lots of dry, piney hops in the nose. Medium sweet flavor, definite alcohol notes, big toasted sugar, some citrus rind, mild grapefruit, grass, pine. Medium to full bodied with average, smooth carbonation. Warm finish, some dry citrus, wood, toasted bread, toasted sugar, dry grass, pine. Lasting bitter grass. Not bad. I wonder if the freshness isn’t all it could be. Still, a pretty enjoyable beer.

Hazy copper colored pour with a big white head. Green apple, grass, straw, and melon notes. Some malt sweetness, caramel, and pine. Perhaps a bit of alcohol. Fairly sweet flavor, but pronounced bitterness, too. Lots of grass, green apple, and pine. Sweet caramel malt, a lasting, resinous bitterness, and a hint of melon on the finish.

UPDATED: FEB 19, 2012 330ml bottle from the Struise shop, Brugge. Pours murky, copper-glinting ruby under a pile of cream foam that threatens to engulf the beer. Nose of Red Delicious apples, warm plastic spread with jam. frangipane, throat sweets. Plenty of sweet malt to cushion the bitterness, which is entirely hypothetical; warm, cherry stone alcohol, indistinct red fruits,Tunes and strawberry cream chocolates (Quality Street?) dominate. Clouds of lace. Too soggy/BrewDog-like for me, like they’ve over compensated with the malt. Actually lacks hop character- 330ml is going to be a struggle. Less is more.

Draft. Rich amber beer with a cream head. Grapefruit and summer fruit aroma with light candy notes. Grapefruit and pine flavor with summer fruit and light caramel. Medium bodied. Decent bitterness. Grapefruit and pine lingers with light summer fruit.

33cl bottle courtesy of sebletitje pours up amber with gold hues at the edges and tan head that leaves behind some spotty lacing. The aroma has some yeastiness as well as a light amount of sticky citrus, pine hops and a touch of floral hops. The taste delivers some lime like yeastiness notes and then a mix of orange peel and pine hops. To midway it gets more peachy to a bit pineapple. Pretty nice and seems to be inline with other Euro-like highly hopped brews.

Bottle from Vinens Verden. Pours hazy amber with a creamy very longlasting beige head. Beautiful curtains. This beer is truly hoppy! Loads of resin and grapefruit. Notes of spruce, grass and caramel. The flavour is hoppy and sweet but it mixes quite well. Grass, resin, spruce and grapefruit. Sweet malty and highly resin finish. Creamy texture.

330mL. Pours glowing, minerally amber to orange with an insane near nitro pour tan, porter like head with completely insane retention. About a 4-5 finger tall head lasts with no diminishing for 15 minutes. Completely insane. Could probably place an M&M on the head and it would sit there like Alesmith Wee Heavy’s head. Wow. I guess Belgian yeast plus huge isohumulone and malt protein work well together. Huge, webby lace. Nose is softer, perfumey, herbal, fresh and fruity blood orange, tangy curacao. As it warms and decants it smells a little apple heavy and oxidized so don’t let this sit out too long. Taste is soft, fluffy, dessert like, with fresh melon and fresh lime honey. Honeysuckle, wood, tart lime, sugar, and mild alcohol with muted bitterness. No nuttiness or astringent character. Palate is wildly soft, really pillowy carbonation with no cheesecloth or candy stickness. Feels like homemade marshmallow on the palate. Tart, lactic back end. Sweet honeysuckle and tropical fruit juice. Totally delicious. I was not expecting this one to be so good- what a treat! Doesn’t feel like 300 IBUs or whatever.

Brown coloured and hazy. Has a white head, mostly lasting. Hoppy aroma, sharp. Flavor starts moderate sweet and finish heavy to harsh bitter, hoppy notes, faint metal, faint astringent. Heavy dry texture and soft carbonation.

33cl bottle @ Struise. Thanks David. Ornagée presque sur l’ambre, légère brume, col épais beige collant au verre. Arôme de levure renfermée qui ressort comme très présent au bouquet, profile houblonné est proéminent avec des agrumes et citron/pamplemousse allant sur acétique (bizarre). En bouche, palais épais, bcp de houblons et un profile fruité qui est un peu en perdition dans ce tourbillon d’EBUs. Je trouve le côté en bouche être un peu renfermé et herbacé avec du pin et citron voire résineux. Profile tropical agréable et un fini collant légèrement aux lèvres avec un profile levure belge. Carbonnation est assez faible laissant en bouche une impression d’épaisseur mélangeant amertume et douceur sucrée. Pas mauvaise, mais comme dit le dicton ’trop de houblon tue le houblon’. A revisiter avec un peu d’age voir comment cela évolue.

Bottle. Nice aromatic fruity hops. Dark cloudy golden, low amber head. Hay an mealy malt, fantastic hop aromatics, tropical. Full creamy mouthfeel. Yum.