Style: NEIPA
Brewery: Poppels Bryggeri
Origin: Sweden
Size: 33cl
Alcohol: 7.5%
Price: 40kr
Systembolaget: 30706
Founded in 2012, Poppels was originally based in Mölnlycke but moved to Jonsered in 2016, the same year it became eco certified. As of 2020, Poppels was the second-biggest craft brewery in Sweden, with over 1 million litres sold in Systembolaget in 2020. Malt producer Viking Malt has started experimenting with broad beans (also called fava beans or åkerbönor) as a substitute for grains in beers, which has proven to have many advantages. Poppels has taken the experiment further by replacing wheat and oats with broad beans and made a New England style IPA. As I was researching different styles of IPA for the tasting, I came across this and I just knew I had to have it. This is the first time I had ever tried a beer made from beans, so I was curious to see how well it worked, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised!
Cloudy lemon in colour with a long-lasting bubble bath style, this beer looked really nice from the get-go. The aroma was citrus and indeed beans, with the lemon and pea pod notes coming through strongly. Usually if I smell vegetables in a beer, I know that it’s defective, so I had to keep telling myself that it was to be expected in a beer made with beans! The taste was sweet, with some light but tasty mango notes picked up along with some honey melon. The aftertaste was fairly short-lived, leaving a slightly grassy note in the mouth. The body was medium to thick, with medium carbonation rounding off the experience
This was a rather interesting beer, but maybe not the most exciting. I feel like I have tried this beer 100 times before and in better ways. It was new to try a beer made with beans though, and it added an extra element to the beer which needed careful consideration. If they could decrease the vegetable notes slightly, I think it would improve it a lot. As a NEIPA, it was kind of average, but as a bean beer it was very intriguing. It will be interesting if this trend continues into the future, so definitely something to keep an eye out for.