Kasteelbier Tripel Blonde 11%

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck
Style: Abbey Tripel
Ingelmunster, Belgium

750ml, bottled on 09-19-2007. Pours pale straw and lases cheery yellow in the glass… myriad lines of bubbles migrate ceaselessly upward, bedecking the beer with wooly off-white lather. Orange, banana, and pungent coriander leaves highlight the tropical fruity nose; sourdough, mint, tobacco, bubblegum and bamboo shoots are less apparent. Each sip reflexes from sweet/tart fruit (blueberry, unripe peach, apple, strawberry) to sharp peppery spice upon passing the lips. Finishing with an impressive ethanol burn, the ale’s aftertaste features a gentle earthy bitterness and mango mojo. Paralleling the flavor, the palate progresses from rich and creamy to pins-and-needles carbonation, leaving the tongue slightly stung and tingly… and the alcohol onslaught becomes numbing near the end of the first glass. Perhaps a little overtart and enthusiastically ethanolic for my taste, but a fine tripel nonetheless.

Bottle: Light golden pour with good clarity and a lacing white film of head. The aroma has some pale Belgian malt, graininess, bready notes, honey, peppery esters, and mild banana. The palate is thick and alcoholic. It has a note of bread-crust in the fore-flavor with plenty of yeasty/peppery phenols. Plenty of spicy alcohol is apparent. Has sweet notes of apple, honey and more yeast and ethanol into the finish. Neither balanced, nor complex.

On draft at Magoo’s . Cloudy light tan in color, little head but nice lacing, faint sweet fruity odor, very sweet-sour inittial taste with hints of bananans and grapefruit, sweet sour taste with strong sweeet finish and a little too bitter aftertaste.

My favorite store to buy beer brought this in the other day. I immediately recognized it was a new product in the store because I had heard nothing about it. I picked up a pint, and as I was leaving, the man told me, "Be careful. That stuff will kick your ass." Yeah, well I should had listened. I decided to pour it into a regular beer pint glass. The aroma was wonderful, appearance was alright, but overall, it was a very very smooth beer, and it had a nice little kick at the end. Left a great taste in my mouth. One bottle of this tore me up. Kasteel has the highest ABV I have tried thus far. I will buy this again and again.

Bottle. Golden yellow colour, white head. Aroma of alcohol, fruits, yeast. Flavour is alcoholsweetness, sweet fruits, a bit sour also and some yeast. Almost all flavours derive from the alcohol. A bit repulsive. Perhaps I need to revise this rating someday.

Golden clear pour with with nice thin frothy head. Very carbonated, Citrus hop notes, clean, well attenuated with little residual sweetness. slight yeast bite and alchohol warmth in finish... good beer

Flaske. Flot gul øl med et lækkert skum. Duften er frugtig med en smule gær i. Smagen er frisk med en dejlig karbonering, og en rigtig fin balance i forhold til 11%. Dejlig og anbefalelsesværdig øl.

Pours with a fluffy full slightly off white head. Aroma is slightly weaker than it should be...slightly acidic, with diacetyl notes, some banana, little clove. Appearance is spot on, looks like it came straight off the farm (even though the brewery isn’t on one I believe). Flavor is moderate at first, then bites with much citrus and banana. Leaves a decent palate, could be a little stronger. Not bad overall!