Barley dodgers

Belgian beers have become a bit of a rare sight on this blog of late. Two today from the Green's gluten-free range brewed at De Proef. They've been around forever (ie slightly longer than the blog) but these dry-hopped variants were new to me. Unlike most gluten-free beers, they haven't been formulated normally and then had the gluten (or most of it) stripped out; instead "alternative grains" have been employed, though the label does not deign to tell us which ones. I'm guessing sorghum.

First opened was Gold Dry-Hopped Lager. It's a fairly watery-looking gold, appearing somewhat washed out. The aroma is sweet and peachy, promising soft and ripe stonefruit. That's not really what the flavour delivers, however. There's quite a harsh bitterness, the sting of tasted perfume, after which it tails off suddenly. It's only 4% ABV and I suspect the base beer is quite a plain affair. Whatever hops they've used on it make it taste artificial and strangely stale. A check of the best-before revealed that it wasn't an old bottle. In fact it had a year and a half still to run. The whole smacks of a brand that doesn't take beer seriously. Anyway, this lager is not recommended and I apprehensively move on to its sibling.

The muddy colour of Grand India Pale Ale is at least partly my fault as it's bottle conditioned and I had it sitting on its side in the fridge. The poor carbonation is entirely theirs. Once again the aroma starts us off well: it smells of juicy watermelon, which is granted not a customary beer aroma but is a perfectly acceptable and attractive one. The flavour is not unpleasant, but it is odd. There's a candy sweetness; a touch of bubblegum or other luridly-coloured confectionery. This settles for a moment into a real tropical fruit note -- mango and passionfruit -- before fading out and leaving a punchy bitterness behind. It's another thin effort, and I guess that's what not brewing with glutinous grains gets you. The flavour combinations would be interesting in a fuller-bodied beer, and I don't even miss the fizz: there's enough of a sparkle.

The IPA is actively nice to drink; the lager definitely isn't. But neither really tastes like actual beer. There's a reason our ancestors selected barley and wheat for brewing.