Bullfrog Tripel Trubbel

Brewed by Bullfrog Brewery
Style: Abbey Tripel
Williamsport, Pennsylvania USA

Bottle sampled at the J&J Friday the 13th Tasting at WeeHeavySD’s place. Thanks Jon for a kickass tasting. Yellow color with a deep golden center and thick, developing head. Aroma is an appetizing mix of freshly baked bread and sweet almond cake with lemon. Nice diacetyl tones in the flavor with nuances of butterscotch, orange citrus and light hops. Easy finish with good carbonation. Really tasty!

750mL bottle from WeeHeavySD tasted at J&J’s Friday the 13th tasting. Thick creamy off-white head. Cloudy yellow color. Some buttery sweetness as if a little bit of barrel aging. Very easy to drink.

750ml bonus from hopdog. Shared at the J&J tasting with wetherl, denverlogan, giascar, lagunitasfan, toncatcher, and maybe other people, but I’m drunk. Pours gold with a bright white ring. Huge huge bread/sweet crackers nose, as soon as the cork popped. Taste is sweet and nice and citrussy, great trip for me, as I am one to openly shun most trips.

A soft pour produces an almost three-finger thick, pale tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. As I pour this solid fruit aromatics of ripe pear, apple, over-ripe honeydew and some tropical fruit notes greet my nose. The beer is a amber color that shows a lightly hazed, orange tinged, straw-gold color when held up to the light. A deeper inspection of the aroma confirms the dominant fruit notes but there is also notes of black pepper, earthy coriander and over-ripe, not quite rotting ginger in the finish. Actually the over-ripe, not quite rotting description is a good one for the fruit character here in the nose as well. As my nose becomes accustomed to the fruit some spicy, phenolic notes of clove. Despite my somewhat off putting descriptors of the nose, I am really enjoying the aroma of this beer.

The beer is somewhat sweet tasting, but much of this is accentuated by the fruit esters found in this beer, it is also a touch tart which really adds a nice touch to the overall flavor profile. Fruit flavors of tart / ripe pear, star fruit, musk melon (so much more apt than cantaloupe here). There is a definite hint of mustiness here as well, something a bit like a sweet mushroom note, perhaps a bit like a moldy shoe lace (not quite moldy socks, but near there). There beer gets more fruit laden as the beer warms up with a concentrated, pear like note coming to the fore. The finish has a nice peppery, spicy ginger, lingering turpene piquancy, slightly herbal / grassy note and a touch of a hop bitterness to it all of which contribute to a nice bite towards the end of each sip. this has a certain richness to it with a velvety texture, but it is not overly heavy; it is perhaps a bit heavier than I would like a Tripel to be. The sweetness that is here is really well masked by the spiciness and the tartness.

I really like the character that this has picked up during fermentation; the ample esters, phenolics and spiciness is actually quite a bit more characterful than any Tripel I can remember having. At times this really has me thinking I am biting into a ripe, tart melon of some sort. This is quite interesting and quite the enjoyable beer.

Thanks to weeare138 for sharing this bottle. Pours a hazy golden/orange with a bunch of floaties and a bubbly white head...gusher alert! Flavor of candy sugar, banana, citrus, bubblegum, yeast, earthy and honey. Flavor of citrus, honey, sweet bready malt, citrus, spicy notes and apple juice.

750ml bottle shared courtesy of weeare135654. Poured a medium and cloudy golden color with a smaller sized off white head. Aromas of citrus, fruity, hodeny and spices. Tastes of citrus, the same fruitiness (apples and pears), and vanilla. Light alcohol in the finish. Overall, a very nice American made Tripel

Poured a murky golden color with a thin, off white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of citrus fruits, vanilla, honey, toasted malts, spices, and coriander. Taste of more coriander, vanilla, citrus fruits, green apple, white grapes, pils malt, and a bit of alcohol in the finish.

750ml bottle. Cloudy amber color with a medium head. Fairly good lacing. Aroma was pome and citrus fruits, pineapple, yeasty spiciness and honey. A hint of funk. Has the ’sweet-n-sour’ thing going on in the taste. Quite refreshing.