Kasteelbier Tripel Blonde 11%

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

Draft. Light gold in color, with a fluffy white head. A surprisingly light nose with some yeast, flowers, and light fruit. Medium carbonation with a slick, almost a little oily, mouthfeel. The taste is a pleasant surprise of a little sour/tartness, pear, white grape, banana, and yeast. The sweetness lingers just a little too long for my taste. Overall it isn’t bad, but a hair on the sweet side. I could use better balance.

TAP: light gold pour, white head. Sweet fruit and yeast on the nose, and alcohol, carbonation, strong fruit on taste.

Bottle from Papous wine shop in Sylva, NC. Pours a golden yellow beer with a big off white head. Aroma is sweet yeasty and alcohol. Flavor is sweet mosty taste of rotten fruit, banana, yeast, light malt and very light hop. Finish is clean carbonated and very little presence of alcohol for the 11 percent.

From bottle 33cl, yellow liquid with a nice off-white head, aroma of apple yeast banana and vanilla, zesty mouthfeel with flvors of apple yeast and sweetener (again) low hop. OK

PPWD Show. Excellent beer. What can I say I love the Belgians. A little cold. Had to warm in hand. Comparable to Chimay White. Would like to taste them side by side, blind. Obvious banana, bubble gum, coriander. Good mouthfeel. Light finish. Can’t believe it’s 11%.

It has a light amber color with a white head. The smell has some fruitiness in it but it is mainly a smoky spice aroma. It reminds me of beef jerky. At the first sip, I noticed the same spice. It also has some citrus and malt flavor. The alcohol is strong, but not to harsh on the mouth. It is pretty good stuff. Not the best Abbey Tripel, but far from the worst.

75cl bottle. Light gold with a medium white head. Dusty yeast, pear, and honey malt aromas. Lightly sweet malt with light spice and fruit and a dry finish. Low hops. Medium bodied with hight carbonation. Not an especially interesting or unique tripel, but it gets the job done.

750mL bottle purchased at Total Wine in Roseville, CA. Hmmm...bottled on Sept 19 2007. Musty, peppery, spicy aroma with some esters and a fair amount of acetaldehyde. A little ethanolic, too. Not so good. Transparent light golden body with a small, quickly dissipating white head. Spritzy, cidery, with tons of acetaldehyde. A little sweet maltiness in the middle before an ethanolic, cidery burn to finish. Not very good. I am attributing this to the fact that the bottle is old and was likely not stored very well at Total Wine.