Bluegrass Mephistopheles Metamorphosis

Brewed by Bluegrass Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Tripel
Louisville, Kentucky USA

sampled at GABF. golden pour with touch of amber. thin head. banana, yeast, pepper and alochol aroma. fuzzy mouth and alcohol warming. Another nice offering from Bluegrass.

Poured a yellowish light brown with a little white head. Aroma was of apples, bread, and a little spices. I was expecting this to be full of sediment and very hot but I was pleasantly suprised to have a descent tripel.

Bottle: Columbus tasting shared by bgburdman. Clear gold, not much in the way of head. Aroma was bready and medicinal. Flavor had some sweetness, a bit of spice, and quite a lot of heat from the alcohol. Dry finish. Couldn’t believe this was only 11%.

25 oz bottle, via Kevin. The huge amount of sediment in this bottle kind of had me on alarm, so when I opened it I did it over the sink. Thank god I did. After a gunshot like pop after uncaping the beer shot up in the air about 12 inches and half the bottle foamed out. Prompting my 4 year old to ask "why did you do that daddy?" Thereafter it poured an extremely cloudy and turbid apple cider orange with a small off white head. Aroma is just as murky as the appearance. Fruity esters, alcohol, tons of yeast, bananas, peach, and a little garbage juice. Flavor is hugely alcoholic and bursting with muddy murky yeast. Friuitiness up front starts OK, but the finish is quite off with a lingering garbage and burnt tire flavor. Mouthfeel is thick and chewy because of all the yeast suspended. Active fizzy carbonation foams up as soon as it meets the tongue. This was disappointing in all aspects. Maybe the worst attempt at bottle conditioning I’ve experienced. It always makes me twice as sad to drainpour a 750.

750ml bottle at Columbus 2.0 tasting shared by bgburdman9 - Thanks! - Poured golden with not much head at all. Aromas of bread, corriander, candi sugar, and yeast. Flavors of corriander, citrus, and lots of bready notes. Palate is crisp and clean but there is definitely some alcohol warmth on the very dry finish.

8/26/2006: Tasted from 750 mL bottle at River’s Bend - Thanks Matt! Hazy orange color. Moderate carbonation. Sweet candy aroma and slighty yeasty. Flavor was also pretty sweet with undertones of yeast, cinnamon or some other spice, and some fruit flavors. Strong, warming alcohol as well. Slightly bitter finish. Rating: 6/3/7/3/13=3.2
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7/03/2009: Bluegrass Mephistopheles Metamorphosis is really, really sweet - MUCH sweeter than I remember it. Actually, the aroma and flavor remind me of sweet red wine with some date and prune qualities thrown in. This beer has a bright copper color, a medium body, and is mellow on the palate. It coats the mouth well. I like this beer, but it is definitely not what I would consider a Tripel. I think calling it an English-style Barleywine might be a more apropos categorization!

750ml bottle (sample) at Party Town in Florence, Kentucky. Rating: 7/4/7/3/15=3.6.

Thanks to Secret Santa for this one. As far as sediment goes, this is the Dark Lord of tripels! This bottle had more yeast and protein than the aftermath of Peter North cream pieing a woman with Candidiasis! The initial pour was turbid deep gold, but had decent golden clarity to it, with the sediment being somewhat subdued at this point. The head, as has been my experience with all BBC beers so far, was mammoth (which is a good thing). I noted aromas of fruit, hopcitrus, some candi sugar and funky yeast notes. The flavor was initially tart, with some hopcitrus, candi sugary fruit, and spicy yeast. Rather dense palate, that gets a little sweeter, and dare I dare say a bit cloying and muddled with the repour. Each repour gave me maybe 3-4 ounces of beer, with the rest being foam. Like goldtwins, after the 2nd repour I had the head coming up and out of the bottle. By the last pour, I was left with a drink that resembled pulpy grapefruit juice. This one isn’t super well balanced, but it is definitely unique, and went well with some swiss cheese and a Connecticut wrapper cigar.

Pours an effervescent clear golden with a nicely-lacing white head. Slightly skunked Belgian yeasty and spicy aroma has some fruity esters. Body starts with some sweet sugary malt quickly turning more peppery and spiced with lots of alcohol. A nice effort, but shouldn’t be put in green bottles and needs more balance and finesse.