Tasting Brooklyn East IPA beer
When you live in Belgium and blog about beer (and whisky, and other tasty stuff to follow soon) it would be easy enough to stick to Belgian beer. Incidentally, if you call it ‘Belgium beer’ Belgians are actually allowed to bash in your head with a ‘goedendag’. It’s an old obscure medieval law that we kind of refuse to let go of. Seriously.
Ok I made it up, but it should be law to be honest. But back to the topic: it would be easy enough to stick to our local brews. After all, we have a huge choice of excellent stuff, and most of my favourite stores have at least a thousand different ones in stock.
But let’s face it, the times that only Belgians made great bear are long gone. Well, that is if you think 10 to 15 years is long, but that’s beside the point. (It might have been a bit longer for a few exceptions too, but this is what it feels like). The point Is breweries (mostly craft whatever the hell that means these days) around the world are making great stuff, and that makes up for exciting times for beer lovers.
One of those breweries that do great stuff is the Brooklyn Brewery. Guess where they are located. They have a visitor centre that I hear is definitely worth the trip by the way. And when I check out their website it sure does look promising. But again, we digress.
A few years ago, they cut a deal with the Carlsberg group to distribute their beer in Europe, and now it’s fairly easy to get their staple expressions over here. And I’m glad. Because the one I’ve tasted for this blogpost was seriously good.
For this tasting session I was assisted by Werner Van den Nouwelant and Raoul Baelus. They agreed about the quality and taste of this great IPA.
Nose:
Peach and Vanilla. Green grapes as well. Hops all around to support the fruit, that also includes mandarins after a while. Classic east cost IPA with a lot of depth.
Mouth:
Loads of hops and mandarins. Grainy. Balanced but loses a bit of the complexity from the nose.
Finish:
That complexity comes back when you swallow though. See, you should always swallow. Peach again, grains, hops. A bit nutty even. Bitter and dries out your mouth, but in a good way. Still well balanced and makes you long for the next sip.
Yes, definitely in front of the pack. This is an excellent balanced beer. Complex enough to please bear lovers, yet highly drinkable and very good for quenching your thirst. Great during the summer on some porch. I could happily only drink this one for a whole evening. Well several of course.
A bit of a chuckle while tasting: on the label 6.9% alcohol is indicated as ‘strong’. For us Belgians that’s more like lemonade. But still, it’s not the alcohol level that counts but the taste. And it delivers. Give us another one.
This Beer reminds me of: Rosie Perez
Combining the exotic with depth and a lot of character. Definitely ahead of the pack.
The data:
The beer: Brooklyn East IPA
Released by: The Brooklyn Brewery
Year on bottle: 2019
Alcohol percentage: 6,9
As a Belgian, it’s not that easy to take the Brooklyn Brewery tour, but we can sure taste a Brooklyn Brewery IPA. And share the notes with you of course.
Haha, I had wondered what Belgians called their beer… good to know! 🙂 I’m not sure how I feel about a beer that is reminiscent of Rosie Perez… that’s kind of a stretch, but the complex and strong beer sounds like a nice one to enjoy on a hot day. Thanks for sharing the details of this one… I see it often and had wondered if it would be one that I might like to try!
Hey Rosie is cool 🙂
Did I just hear the mentioning if vanilla? That’s my favorite flavor. Well! I recently started following your bog and wow! You’ve reviewed great and classic beers and wines. I particularly like this Brooklyn east IPA beer because I’m not a big fan of beer but I wish to start taking beer to forgo others. Well, based on the review you have done on this and how it felt, I’m getting a watery mouth ti have a taste of this. I will definitely try it out and be willing to share my feeling with it. Thanks
Hello Dave, I must say that this article is very helpful and informative. My friend tells me that he tasted this beer and he was amazed. I am a big fan of beer and I would like to try Brooklyn East as it looks pretty attractive. Thank you for sharing such great info about this beer, it is definitely worth a try.
That’s an interesting rule about Belgian beer. How come you can’t call it Belgian beer? Peach, vanilla and green grapes sounds delicious. I like your this beer reminds me of section. It’s a good point because it’s like our brains make these associations. Great website and I will be back to read more!
You can call it Belgian Beer, in fact it’s the correct way. You can’t call it ‘Belgium beer’ since that is incorrect English, yet a lot of people do and it annoys me a bit :p
Wow, this is a really good drink. Seeing that they just started off and having quite a number of fans is cool. The Brooklyn brewery did a very great job on this one. I am nor so much of a beer fan but ill try it out. I like howhow you say the beer dries out on the tongue at the finishing. Might be magical, great stuff.
We have several craft beers in South Africa and they mainly have a good taste but are a bit more expensive than the commercial beers,these sound as though they would be a lot more expensive than even our craft beers.
From what has been posted by Belgians, this Brooklyn East beer seems to be a good beer,and if it’s made in New York with all the tasters there it is hopefully a very good beer,
Tasting sessions for these craft beers, seem to be an important part of the whole process,but I must say I battle to understand these flavors they talk of,peach, vanilla,and green grapes for the nose,hops and mandarins, for the mouth,finishing off with all the flavors when you swallow,I seem to only taste beer!
Tasting is something you can train yourself in, but the most important question is “Do I like this”. All the rest is just personal experience. Also keep in mind that it’s ok to taste different things, everyone has a different past with different past experiences. As for South Africa: I visited a few times but I never got arount to looking for craft beer there. Best local brew I had was from Namibia’s brewery Windhoek, and I liked the ‘draught’ one. If you are from sa and speak afrikaans, you can probably handle my tastenotes in dutch on my old site
http://beproefd.be/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1262:windhoek-draught&catid=24&Itemid=220
I did taste great whisky from South Africa, the single malt expression from Three Ships is awesome.
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