Bands, festivals and the lot are releasing branded booze by the dozens these days. GRIMM makes it its mission to get to the bottom (of the bottle) of this trend with insightful reviews and extra backgrounds. So sit back, PICK YOUR POISON, and discover all you need to know about your favorite band’s alcoholic brands!

A beer festival is a good moment to discover and get to know new beers and the people behind it. This way we stumbled upon Maxime Dumay of the No Science micro-brewery from Brussels. Looking at the beer names we could know we were dealing with an enthusiast of the harder musical genres. While talking with him we sampled two of his beers. So here is a short introduction to two of his beers to accompany our longer reviews of the Psycho Table Beer and the Heavy Porter we shared before on the column. Stay tuned for our interview with Maxime Dumay on his background and brewing philosophy.

Poison Fact Sheet

• Poison name: Stoner Witch
• Poison style: beer – rye IPA
• ABV: 5,8 %
• IBU: 90
• Brewery: No Science Brasserie (Belgium)
  

  (ABV = Alcohol By Volume; IBU = International Bittering Units)

The Stoner Witch was introduced to the greater public for the first time at this beer festival and Dumay was curious to see people’s reactions in order to judge if the beer would continu in its current form. The golden beer had a white adhesive foam and the aroma gave away hints of lemon. Furthermore, already from the aroma you could expect this beer to be bitter. And in fact, the Stoner was extremely, not to say aggressively, hoppy. While rye malts or cereals can often give a creamier texture, these additions were not too pronounced here. The carbonation was lively and rather high. After the intense bitterness we got a bone dry finish. And then I mean a ‘full period stop’-dry finish. Untappd defined this as a ‘rye IPA’, however our feelings lend more toward an ‘IPA meets dry saison’. This beer is not for the faint of heart!

Goes Best With…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AF57VL9Om0Video can’t be loaded: Melvins~Stoner Witch (Full Album) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AF57VL9Om0)

Scoring

Poison Fact Sheet

• Poison name: Noisy Pale Ale
• Poison style: beer – IPA Belgian
• ABV: 6 %
• IBU: 60
• Brewery: No Science Brasserie (Belgium)
  

  (ABV = Alcohol By Volume; IBU = International Bittering Units)

Our taster of the blonde golden colored Noisy Pale Ale is topped of with a creamy foam. The aroma brings to mind orange peel and mandarins. The first sip reveals an equally creamy mouthfeel with medium carbonation. Compared to the Stoner Witch IPA this beer has a much softer bitterness, characterized by a grainy character with some citric notes. While the Stoner might be disliked by some due to its extreme characteristics, the Noisy Pale Ale might fall victim to the label of ‘being too standard’. It’s hard to please people these days isn’t it? Its logo looks like ink spots thrown on a canvas and reminds us mostly of some grindcore logos.

Goes Best With…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHB3ingvA6cVideo can’t be loaded: Raketkanon: Ibrahim (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHB3ingvA6c)

Scoring