Green Flash Trippel

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

Name: 3rd Anniversary Triple
Date: 07/15/2006
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, RBSG, 2006

yellow, whispy white head, slightly sweet malt aroma with lots of nice spices, thin body, lots of nice spicy character on a slightly sweet malt base, light bitterness in the finish (from the spices?), a definitative tripple

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 5/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: *4

THOUGHTS: A nice trippel. If I didn’t know better, it could have been from Belgium. Green Flash continues to impress me. It’s easy to go wrong making a trippel, but when done right like this, it’s one of the better styles. Very flavorful. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a cloudy, light to medium orangey amber with an average, sudzy, white head that mostly diminished except for a thin coating and left virtually no lacing. The aroma was lightly yeasty with grape, apple, white wine, light alcohol and spices. The initial flavor was lightly seet and acidic, while the finish was lightly sweet and moderately acidic and bitter with a long duration. The dominant flavors were white wine and spices. The light to medium body was dry and somewhat syrupy with fizzy carbonation and a lightly astringent and alcoholic finish.

Pours a golden color with a nice foamy head.Aroma of yeast and fruit. Taste has a strong alcohol taste Spicy and fruity. Not well balanced. Alcohol hides the taste.

22oz bottle
Pours a rusty dark gold color with a thin white head. Decently proper nose full of candy sugar, sharp alcohol, dry white grapes, and sharp, spicy pears. Flavors pretty much the same, some white wine, spicy pears, some heavily cloying candy sugar – it’s not thin bodied as much as tripel should be, and the candy sugar comes off rather thick instead of thin and elevating, and it’s by far too sweet. Tripel is one of the few styles I judge strictly to-style if a brewer chooses to call their beer tripel, so I’m usually hyper-critical of these American versions. Without regarding style I’d have to say I enjoyed this one, but did find the heaviness and slight booziness a problem, and towards the end of the bomber – drinking this by myself – I had had enough.

Perhaps the weakest style in their line-up. Pours a slightly hazy peach-orange color creating a thin white head. An attracive lacing coats the chalice as it empties. Moderately assertive and clean aromas of apricot, peach, banana, wheat bread, spices, cloves, honey and orange rind are noted. Palate is smooth and slick and perhaps a bit under-carbonated for a Belgian-style Tripel. Flavors are certainly in line with the Belgian style Tripel but seem a tad rough around the edges. Flavors of banana, clove, spice, vanilla, wheat, orange and yeast are apparent but are don’t seem to be supported by the typical subtle malty/honey sweetness of a true Belgian Tripel. Well worth a try, but the authentic Belgians are heads above.

22 oz bottle...pours cloudy yellow/orange with a white head...fresh aroma of spice and yeast, maybe a little orange...sweet tasting with a thin bubbly mouthfeel...yeast in the finish and aftertaste

From a 22 oz bottle poured at 65 degrees from my beer cellar this looked like butterscotch in my Duvel glass and raised a nice rich creamy head with good lacing. Nose of banana and flowers, and a smooth and slick mouthfeel. Flavor is of banana, yeast, oranges, coriander, and alcohol. A little hops in the finish. I liked this a lot, and found it very easy to drink.

Golden and nothing enticing. Very sweet. Too tart for its own good. A Belgian ale without the complexity. Still OK.