New in The Beer Emporium’s fridges this week is the Dalva IPA (8.5%). It’s by Brasserie Thiriez, located in the French village of Esquelbecq, not too far from the Belgian border. The building was an old farmhouse brewery until 1945 and was renovated and reinvented as a brewery by Danial Thiriez, with the first beers produced in 1997. He regularly opens the brewery’s doors (by appointment) for tasting if you fancy a French adventure too!

http://www.brasseriethiriez.com/index_en.html#!/visite_en.html

Dalva is the brewery’s most well-known beer and we were pleased to give it a try last night. This Double IPA uses 3 American hops. On the nose I got loads of banana aroma, pine and some toffee. True to the American hops, there are syrupy tropical flavours, a little bit like sweeties (one online review said flying saucers!). It is fairly light-bodied for its style and alcohol content. There are hints of Belgian yeast, almost saison-esque. Its malts are sweet and toffee-like, but without a heavy malty backbone. It has a tasty easy bitterness on the finish. Would go right nice with a subtly spiced curry!

Balanced and drinkable – well worth a try.