Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel

Brewed by Brasserie d’Achouffe (Moortgat)
Style: Abbey Tripel
Achouffe, Belgium

Pale golden yellow with a beautiful thick and cloudy head. Nose has suprisingly authentic IPA-like hoppiness, grassy and sweet fruity aromas with some wheaty tripel. Flavor strongly hopped with sweet maltiness. Finishes drier, with more of the tripel spiciness. Almost full bodied with quite strong but smooth carbonation. Exotic and sweet, a delicious symbiosis.

whether a beer is delicious or not is irrelevant when you attempt to measure how successful a beverage is in delivering what it advertises. this beer gets a 100% in both categories. aroma is super yeasty like a saison with a just a touch of that belgian spice. this is so dry and lacks the fruit i typically associate with an abbey brew, its much more saison like. dry as a bone but clobbers you with hops like an imperial IPA. the hop bitterness tempers the other qualities in a way ive never experienced before and which probably rarely exists elsewhere. when i read the description on the back of the bottle i was blown away, from another brewery besides achouffe i wouldnt have believed it. clearly i had good reason to this time because they have made good on their promises! the sensation of hops i associate with american craft brews along side belgian yeast is amazing! this is one of the best executed beers ive had in a long time.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect with the IPA/Tripel thing but this beer was not only interesting to try but also quite good. Pours a golden, perhaps light orange color with a huge fluffy head. Tons of lacing. Aroma is heavy malty with perfume and some light floral hopping. The flavor is fruity, a bit tangy, with yeast and hop bitterness hitting following the fruity esters. Light numbing and a bit dry in the finish. Definitely seems more Tripel than IPA to me but an interesting blend of flavors that really does work.

Golden hazy with giant foamy head that lasts forever, aroma of banana mandarin and some herbs, pangency bites your tongue, flavors of grapefruit honey and dry hoppy finish. Great

Bottle. Pours transparent, golden with a fantastic, foaming white head and lots of lacing. The lacing is super dense like a cloud of fog across the whole glass. Carbonation is light. Head is really densely thick, beautiful. There’s apricot in the aroma with something herbal (juniper?), some alcohol, light hops, wood. Mouthfeel is resinous, coating, smooth. The flavour has strong hop bitterness up front, juniper, pine. It has a gin like quality. There’s lemon and other hints of citrus fruits, a wonderfully subtle taste of grains, then a light hop finish.

Smells strongly of hops, yeast and wheatish malt. Very light, cloudy, lots of head. Tastes like a strong pilsner that got really hopped up and smoothed out with the tripel treatment. Pretty good, but more words in the name than the result warrants.

Well-presented in a tulip with creamy golden-yellow, hazy body and billowing, dense crown. Aroma is sweet citrus (lemon, pineapple, orange) and banana, straw, light cardamom and toffee. Flavor is citrus and banana bread, with a spicy, floral finish. Palate has a dry astringency harmonized with a softness which balances the bitter and sweet characters. This ale is an excellent admixture of what I thought were contrasting styles. Thanks Moortgat.