Laura
Vox Populi

Clean, crisp with a nice bitterness to start turning into a slightly sour aftertaste. Good mouthfeel but the aroma and taste were a bit subtle for what I expect these days from an IPA.

 

 

 

 

 

Cloudy gold color. Good lumpy had but it settles to rim bubbles and leaves sparse spotty lace.

Belgian yeast aroma. Light hop.

Clean pale malt base. The Belgian yeast is present but not dominant. High carbonation but with a moderate body. The hop is subdued for an IPA but enough to balance the brew but not make it lean bitter.

Tasted at Le pub chez Gibb's. Great refreshing IPA.

Canned version Slightly hazy pale gold with light head - aroma grapefruit over tropical fruit - flavours of pineapple, passionfruit, kiwi, and multi layered floral / spicey hop bitterness... good mouthfeel.

 

 

 

Canned version : Hazy dark straw color with low activity. Foamy white sparkling 3-4 finger head, lasting around 5-10 minutes, with decent legs, but not much swirl reaction. Flavors of pineapples, tangerines, passion fruits, grapefruits, lemon, caramel, sweet grains, Belgian yeast, with floral and herbal hops. Slick and smooth medium to full body with sharp crispy carbonation. Strong strength finish, freshly tropical and flowery, citrusy and peppery, a bit chalky but in a positive tongue numbing way. Sugary dry hops feels, very rich and tender, slightly piney. Probably some wild yeast also in there cause it's cheesy and straw like. Really fresh and well balanced. Bold but still enjoyable and easy to drink, very zesty. Nice take on the style, yeasty and flowery like a Belgian but more tropical based, heavily fruity. Overall excellent quality craft.

 

 

Bottle: Poured a cloudy light orangey/yellowish color ale with a large pure white foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of citrusy hops with fruity ester and sweet Belgian style malt notes is quite enticing. Taste is sweeter then expected with some fruity ester and some citrusy hops notes and very little bitterness is detectable. Body is full with good carbonation. Sweeter then I had been anticipating but enjoyable with nice mix between a straight Belgian ale with some hops.

Serving: Bottle
Bottled: April 2017 (Consumed: May-17)


A:
Pours a hazy hay color with incredible effervescence and an annoyingly big, white head that takes a few pours to get right. Excellent retention; some lacing. (4.25)

S:
Yeasty spice and some slightly tart citrus, bready, underlying sweetness. (3.75)

T:
Follows the nose. Bready yeast and a slight tanginess, cloves, white pepper, finishes with an herbal hop flourish. (3.75)

M:
Medium body with very active carbonation and a slow finish that seems boozier than it is. (3.5)

O:
This is a decent beer and was nice after a hot day.
It pours with some difficulty as it is a bit over carbonated. The aroma and flavor are similar to a cross between a 31st and a tripel. It smells and tastes like slightly hopped, sweetish beer with a spicy zip. There is a little tartness and it is an enjoyable beer all in all. It is definitely too carbonated and could use a little more as far as direction goes. Not bad. Not convincingly good either. (3.5)

Appearance - This beer pours a crystal clear golden color with 3 fingers of foamy white head. The carbonation looks extremely lively and the head retention is almost unbelieveable. This is what a belgo-IPA should look like hands down.

Aroma - Some very nice sweet citrus notes jump out at you, Pineapple, mango, peach and passion fruit. hint of apple as well, the background is a really rich white bread belgian yeast aroma. Man does this smell good!

Taste - Up front you get grapefruit on the tongue followed by some sweeter citrus like peaches and pineapple, On the back end you get that fluffy fresh baked white bread again as well as what could almost be described as funk. While I find this a very good flavor for a belgo-IPA it is nowhere near the best one I've had.

Feel - This beer has a fairly light body with surprisingly creamy carbonation considering how much you can see in the glass. I was expecting it to be much sharper feeling that it actually is. The bitterness is fairly light and at 5.5% it is fairly sessionable.

Overall - While I do find this a well crafted belgo-IPA, I feel slightly deceived by how good it looked. At the same time. I can't be disappointed with a really well rounded beer that fits the style just because I expected to be blown away. The flavors, aroma, look and feel definitely compliment each other and I could see myself drinking it often. Vox Populi is one Quebec brewery to keep on your radar. Cheers!