Allagash Tripel Reserve

Brewed by Allagash Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Tripel
Portland, Maine USA

Bottle thanks to NachlamSie. Blind tripel tasting with Chimay CInq Cents, Westmalle Tripel, and Tripel Karmeliet with NachlamSie and Muenster. The pour is a cloudy golden with a pale white lasting head. The aroma is spicy with a caramel sweetness and pear citrus. As the brew hits the tongue, the citrusy pear and orange is slightly dominant over the spiciness, but not by much. As the brew progresses its decent down the tongue into the throat, the spiciness becomes more apparent, overpowering the citrus and sweetness. As it passes the tongue, hops qualities surprisingly arise along with a quick burst of spiciness. In the end, the hops, spice, citrus, and sweetness levels nearly evenly. It’s really nice and complex and is my favourite out of the four in the blind tasting.

Pours bright golden and mostly receding off-white head. Aroma of coriander, honey, pepper, and alcohol. Taste is sweet, citric, yeasty with notes of earthy malt, honey, flowery esters. Mouthfeel is full bodied, lightly sticky with lush carbonation. Very nice tripel.

10/6/07 bottle. Foggy yellow color. The smell isn’t entirely awful - it seems to be a mix of sour patch kids candy and feet. Overly bubbly on the palate. Taste is strange and just not very complex in my opinion.

Pours light orange with a nice big white head. Aroma of honey, lemon, citris. Taste is roughly the same. Nice beer to go with food.

Pours orange with a rather large head. Aroma of fruit and honey. Very nice beer.

Poured a hazy light orange color with a giant creamy head. Sweet smell of citrus fruits. Taste was sweet honey, citrus and banana. Very good tripel and I enjoyed it much. Alcohol was very well hidden!

McChouffe trappist glass. Pours out a hazed orange with a thin, but dense head that fades to a sudsy film. There is some particulate matter sinking to the bottom even with trying to avoid this by pouring painfully slow. The aroma is vibrant, light (tropical) fruits, some floral notes, honey, corriander and a bit of that bubblegum goodness, along with suggestions of horseblanket. The flavour is as fruity as the nose implies but instead of honey I’m getting a caramel malt backbone. Slight bitterness arises from the yeasty complex and alcohol content, but not in a way that is offensive. There is warth throughout the taste but most notable in the finish. The finish is long and leaves behind herbal notes. The mouthfeel is tingly and medium bodied. Very easy to drink, but of course it is better to sip.

This beer pours a cloudy orange color with mild particulate matter that sincks right to the bottom. There was no head since it faded quickly but that could be due to the glass since i poured to glasses and one had a head and one did not. It has a nice clove and citrus smell to it. Initially there is a lot of carbonation with citrus flavors and is rather tangy. Over time as the beer itself warms up you can taste alot of honey on the sides of your mouth as well as the palate. I really enjoy the honey after taste since it is very sweet.