Saw a 1pint 9.4 fl oz bomber at BevMo for $9 and change, corked. Very cool bottle design and label. Lots of painted green hops, etc. The cork ricocheted off the high ceiling and woke my wife with an audible POP. "Superior Hoppy Belgian Ale." Little story on the back label about how Belgian brewmeister Hildegard Van Ostraden (I'm writing this from memory, so I may get spellings slightly off) traveled to the Pacific Coast of the US and sampled lots of IPAs, came back and brewed this. Sorta barleywinish. Also has that unmistakeable Belgian taste. Nothing at all like a West Coast IPA from California. Not bad, but...Amazing foam, very cloudy blonde, great lacy pattern in the glass. Tasted quite a lot like so many other beers I had when in Brussells, so why the emphasis on "hops"? 9.5% ABV. Interesting. But nothing to jump up and down about.
So my Q to brewers and other initiated types: what makes a Belgian so uniquely Belgian? I mean, I don't think Hildegard learned anything from the West Coast IPA brewers, but I must be missing something. This tastes like a hard-core Belgian and doesn't resemble an American IPA at all.