Hop Terroir Sorachi Ace Belgium
Mikkeller ApS

Copenhagen 26/2 2018. 50 cl can from Mikkeller & Friends Bottle Shop, Torvehallerne, Kbh. K. The usual slightly weird Keith Shore drawing from the Hop Terroir series - this time with purple background.

Pours opaque milky pale yellow with a big white bubbly head. Settles as a thin patch of foam. Lacing is very moderate.

Aroma is strong and sourish. A little perfume, citrus, dill and grapefruit. Delicate and not aggressive.

Strong prickly carbonation and medium thick texture.

Flavor is lightly sweet followed by strong citric bitterness. Aftertaste is sour and bitter and finish is dry.

Nice, not too aggressive IPA with a little herbal twist.

500ml can - the Belgian version is obviously produced at that old stand-by, De Proef.

This beer pours an opaque, dull banana yellow colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, very loosely foamy, and somewhat bubbly dirty white head, which leaves a few specks of sudsy remote islet lace around the glass as it quickly fizzes out of sight.

It smells of muddled domestic citrus rind, sour dill pickle juice, some mixed-grain malt sweetness, earthy yeast, and some plain leafy, weedy, and piney green hop bitters. The taste is grainy and crackery pale malt, a lesser rye cereal thing, tart orange and lemon citrus flesh, some rather herbal dill weed, a low-key Belgian yeastiness, faint hints of floral soap, and more understated weedy, musty, and piney hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-coating frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and sort of smooth, as the swirling acridity makes a minor scratch in the otherwise new paint job here. It finishes off-dry, the malt and citric fruitiness still contending with some lingering herbal astringency.

Overall - well, they sure squeezed out as much of the expected flavours from this hop as they could. It is very herbal and citrusy, almost like a pickle dipped in gin, for lack of a better description. Interesting, but not something that I would really want a whole lot more of.

 

Remarkably different from the US version even when you just open the can – it even looks a bit different, much hazier (but still the same very pale yellow with a not-so-great white head). The dill is super forward, with a grassy character that smells like a freshly mown lawn, and lots of lemon. There is some coconut as well, and some melon, but mainly this is a dill bomb. Cheesy on the palate, and with less of a creamy-sweet character from the hops, and more of a lemon-herbal character; this would suit a saison nicely, or a lambic. It also has a medicinal sharpness that becomes somewhat abrasive over time. Overall it's a bit less characterful but no less delicious (and more 'noble') than its American counterpart. The overall takeaway is just how different these hops can be – kudos to Mikkeller for this revelatory experiment!