Green Flash Le Freak

Brewed by Green Flash Brewing Co.
Style: Abbey Tripel
Vista, California USA

Draught at The Red. Hazy amber-orange color with a thick, sticky head. Huge fruity and hoppy aroma. Floral hops over pear, banana, and spice. Lots of resiny, bitter grapefruit hop flavor with a sweet fruity, estery undertone. Full bodied with a creamy texture. GF definitely succeeded in providing a great hop fix in combo with lots of complex, fruity yeast character. I think that the huge imperial IPA hop load wins out, but the combo melds quite nicely.

On tap at The Red in Santa Cruz. Poured into a pint glass. Hazy orange color with a fluffy white head. Good thick lacing. Tropical citrus aroma with some Belgian yeast esters. A bit of tree sap too. Bready and yeasty malt undertones, mango notes, perfumey alcohol, medium bitterness. Soft carbonation, maybe a little undercarbonated. Semi dry and mostly clean finish.

Pours pale/yellow in color, very clear with a small head. Smells of malt, yeast, and hops. First sip is bitter and hoppy. Nice malty backbone nicely compliments the hops. Strong yeasts also add to this beer’s intense flavor. A strong bitter with above average carbonation. A fine showing

Draught. Nose is estery, light banana, butter, caramel, and some sour notes. Cloudy gold with good thick head, leaving nice lacing. Spicy hop presence against a fruity-caramel malt/yeast profile. Finishes a little sweet, but overall feels well-balanced with good complexity.

Probably the most successful blending of these two styles that I have tried; I am not generally a fan of these Frankensteins. The aroma is spicy west coast hops and bready Belgian yeast. Flavors tends more towards the trippel on the entry with a significant hop bite towards the end. Still doesn’t seem to represent a harmonious single beer.

Pours a very hazy orange, with an impressive, lasting head of dense froth - the belgian character comes through the most in the aroma, at least initially, with a lot of candi sugar, some light phenolic character, wheat, and strong spices, which lay the foundation for the hops that swell up from underneath them - the flavor works in kind of the opposite way, with dry, bitter, spicy hops presenting first, followed by heavy candi sugar sweetness, banana, rubbery phenols, flowery character - the hops come back strong, though, and the beer dries out quite a bit - lingering, potent bitterness - the alcohol is well-masked until the finish, where it adds a little bit of warmth - tastes like they made an inferior belgian and tried to cover it up by hopping the hell out of it - it works in some ways, but as has been noted, there are far better belgian/ipa hybrids out there - and at over 9 bucks for a bomber, this one is hardly worth it.

IIPA? LOL sure. Amber colored, moderate head, solid lacing and retention. Aroma is sugary, caramel, spicy, somewhat hoppy. More Belgian than American IIPA. Medium bodied, moderate bitterness, fairly dry. Better than most of these hybrids.

Bottle… RBSG ‘08… Cloudy yellow ale with a small, fizzy, white head. Good retention. Peppery, spicy nose with some phenols thrown in. Full-bodied with mild carbonation. Sweet corn and pale malts. Bitter, but not nearly enough. Lengthy, bittersweet, grainy finish.