Bornem Triple

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Steenberge
Style: Abbey Tripel
Ertvelde, Belgium

33cl bottle, 9% a/v From a gift 6 pack from LCBO. Pours a nice shimmery gold colour with a thick white head which dissapates fairly quick, Looks almost like a hefeweizen with a bigger head. Nose is fruity and yeast, and the taste is very intriguing. The beer looks fairly plain but the taste tells you how wrong you are. Tastes like it should be a much darker beer, with notes of spice, fruit, and alcohol. Warms you up nicely on the way down. A very nice beer with a long but crisp and mild aftertaste. Very well done and probably my favorite gold beer ever.

Bottled 33cl. A haz golden beer with a fine white head. Aroma is fruity and yearty. Taste is spicy, sweet ad fruity. Dry and alcoholic end.

[bottle, label: OLD BUCCANEER Reserve] Pale golden, milky body with a huge, soapy white head. Smells like ripe fruit (prunes, bananas), spices (nutmeg)?, more than a hint of alcohol. Initial mellow sweetness, mixed with licorice and juniper, gives way to a tangy and dry bitter finish. Warm aftertaste with a lingering hops mouthfeel, even if a trace of "medicinal" flavour still lingers on. Interesting even if a bit rough/unrefined. Since my labe doesn’t really say "tripel" I’mnot detracting points for not being really true to the style. :)

Bottle conditioned from the LCBO. Beautiful frosted gold body sits underneath a large rocky white head, which eventually diminishes to a finger. Aroma of alcohol, bananas and the spices associated with Belgian yeast. The taste is initially full of these spices, but this is unfortunately quickly curtailed by a predominance of grains, providing the long finish. Aggressive carbonation adds nothing but unpleasantness. This is not what I look for in a tripel.

330 ml bottle from Bevmo. Golden amber with a fluff white head. Aroma of floral hops, rose, fruit, and Belgian yeast. Dry sick-sour taste with fruity notes and a dry slightly alcoholic finish. I’ve had better.

Pours a clear (what?) golden colour with the typical unbelievable amount of head (more fizzy and soap-suds like than any other Belgian I’ve ever seen). The aroma is of spice and alcohol, that’s about it. It looks like a pilsner? Huh? Thankfully the taste does actually have some malts in it, but they’re wrapped in a rough mess of not-so-tasty elements. Stronger alcohol taste than usual, heavy carbonation, with a weaker body due to the lack of yeast. Over-all not very impressive. I don’t really like Tripels very much, but this one seemed like a poor example of the style even to me.

Pours clear and pale yellow with a rocky, frothy head. Oops! Lots and lots of sediment made its way into the bottom of the glass with my overeager pour. Nose has that yeasty tang I associate with Abbey ales and lemongrass and... soapiness? Reminds me of Lemon Joy dishwashing liquid. The glass is clean and used for previous tasting with a rinse-out, so it must be the beer. In the mouth, smooth bitterness and a bread (rye? pumpernickel?) flavor appear. Crisp with mild astringency and only a mild lemony aftertaste. Very drinkable; at 9% alcohol, this could be the world’s most dangerous lawnmower beer! Still waiting for someone to beat Duvel in the Belgian beer wars, though.

Pours a clear yellow with a foamy and sizeable head. Incredibly sweet smell of pineapple, marzipan and dough. Pineapple dominates. The flavour holds sweet apples, yeast, nutmeg and a sour tang to it. Quite mild for a tripel. As with others I’ve tried from this brewer, I’m amazed at the lack of alcohol in the flavour for its percentage.