Abbaye du Cateau Vivat Triple

Brewed by Brasserie de l’Abbaye du Cateau
Style: Abbey Tripel
Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France

4/12 0.5 l Heavy ceramic corked bottle with short cork that pops out strongly on the middle of unscrewing the cage, obviously typical for this region... Bought in Casino store, Monaco. It poured hazy orange to golden body with big head. Fine yeasty and orange aroma. Bitter, yeasty and alcoholic flavor. Pretty simple and crude, with honey, biscuit and some orange inside. Medium bodied with longer bittersweet and warming finish. Not particularly good tripel, but characteristics of the style are present.

A decent strong blond beer from the SAQ, recent. Malty sweet aroma, than more yeasty later in the bottle. Yellow body with rising carbonation noticed, white head and lacy. The mouthfeel is soft, and then offset somewhat by the carnbonation. Not a Belgian triple.

Lovely 0.5l bottle like on the picture, found at the Carrefour on Boulevart Alfred I, Monaco. Poured a murky darker orange/ochre body with a big white head that went away slowly. Slightly sourish orangey/dusty nose. The taste is yeasty, maybe too yeasty, sweetish, some maltiness, notes of eggs, light notes of carrots. Empty. Light acidic notes, no alcohol. Eh. Not my type of tripel.

On tap at Biere Mondiale 2009, Strasbourg. Pours a hazy yellow with a white head. Sweet and slightly fruity. Hints of Belgian yeast and honey. Very clean and balanced. Medium to full bodied. Sweet finish with lots of honey. Good.

Urca che buona! Sorpresissimissimo: dalla bottiglia/confezione/dal fatto che di solito il besagnin di francese porta giù un po’ di tutto e non necessariamente roba buona, da tutto quanto..ero perplesso, non credevo ci fosse qualcosa di così buono lì dentro. Oggi pomeriggio decido di accompagnare l’ascolto di "Squeeze" dei falsi Velvet Underground e la lettura degli articoli sul "mio" papiro (P.Oxy 4708) con questa tripel, mezzo litro di tripel in una bottiglia che pesa come mia nonna. Versa colore ambrato chiaro, molto torbida, bella schiuma; l’aroma è eccezionale, domina il dolce del malto caramelloso (e un po’ di miele acacia), ma la complessità è notevole, pesca, albicocca, un pungente d’alcol intermittente. Al sapore è più ordinaria, ma decisamente soddisfacente, ’carica’ quanto basta per far apprezzare la sua dolcezza non stucchevole, forse avrebbe bisogno di un finale un poco più secco, ma se la cava comunque piuttosto bene. Bravi, tra le migliori birre francesi assaggiate.

Fresh slightly acidic nose. Nice blond cloudy beer. First impressions are easy and smooth malty flavours with sweet hints of fruit. In the aftertaste nice bitters slowly evolve. Hints of spice too. Very well presented beer in earthenware jug/bottle.

750ml bottle, yellow gold colr, with a fluffy bige white head, warmth, yeasty, fruity, nice honeyed pale malt nose, with a honey, candy sugar sweetness, a faint spicy vanilla accent, with some mild ripe apple, pear, faint citrus notes in the aroma folows through on a medium-bodied palate with a yeasty, sweet honeyed, grainy pale malt, warm alcoholic character, with some candy sugar, honey, fruity flavors of pears, green apples, with a hint of vanilla spiciness, leading towards a warming, honeyish, ripe apple, lingering hop bittering finish.

Massive head but very fast to fall away. Flat and cardboarty in the basic style. Might have been abit past it.s best