La Trappe Tripel

Brewed by De Koningshoeven (Bavaria - Netherlands)
Style: Abbey Tripel
Tilburg, Netherlands

An exceptional beer. Just arrived in Panama, and clearly the best beer available here. Perfect for a warm weather (but hey no rain) Thanksgiving. Pours a honey color with a large, foamy cream colored head. Lightly carbonated. A nose of honey and light fruits. Well balanced and a bit sweet, full flavored hanging on the relatively strong alchohol backbone. A real treat.

Bottle, poured into Abbey glass. Not that dark - more of a honey colour. Creamy beige head. Nose is fruity and grassy. Taste is yeast, pears and peaches. Quite carbonated mouthfeel. Alcohol sticks out a bit, but doesn’t totally overwhelm the hops at the end.

Serving date: 2009-02-24. Served in snifter. 330 ml bottle with freshness date on the label (best before end of 2010). Pours a brownish amber color with a lightly yellow shaded 1 cm head that settles after a while but leaves some decent lacings. First pour is clear, but a rather aggressive second pour with more or less all of the yeast going into the glass makes the beer rather cloudy. Lots of fruity aromas - most are on the sweet side, but some are slightly tart. Grainy malts, a general candy-like smell and some light phenols. The alcohol lurks in the background. The taste resembles to a large extent the smell. Plenty of vinous fruits (ripe apples, redcurrants), white bread, caramel malts, a touch of honey, some spices, candy and restrained yeast. It goes a little tart in the middle. A rather noticeable taste of alcohol. The gently bitter finish contains more malt, a taste of white pepper, a twang from the alcohol, and leaves a slightly dry sensation in the mouth. I must say, although the alcohol isn’t completely overpowering, it’s still rather prominent and sometimes overshadows the other flavors. Medium body, a bit too light if you’d ask me. Moderate carbonation with gentle bubbles. This is a good beer, but not great, and considering the expectations that one generally have on Trappist beers, I keep finding myself thinking that it’s just ok. It is surprisingly restrained for a Belgian Tripel, and not as complex as many other comparable Trappists. It’s simply just not that interesting. Also, considering it’s generally restrained character, it tastes slightly to much of alcohol. I’m not saying that it gets boozy - it just lacks some big flavors to back up the alcohol. However, in the end it is still a good tasting beer and I would like especially like to mention the composition of the sweeter components in it since I found them very pleasant. Serving type: bottle (Copy of old Beer Advocate review)

Nice golden color, verging on amber. Smallish creamy white head with great retention and great lacing, also. Citrus fruits, bananas and caramel. Buttered biscuits. Very floral and fruity. Slightly spicey. Yeast and sweet malts. What you’d expect from the style. Lots of yeast with some spiciness. Light fruit flavors, mostly pears, apples, and peaches. Butterey caramel notes. A touch of oaky vanilla. Despite all this, I find this Tripel to be almost bland (compared to others) in it’s smoothness. Nice, creamy mouthfeel. Feels as a Tripel should. Lots of tiny little bubbles in the carbonation. Very smooth. This wouldn’t be bad to keep on hand as a ’go-to’ beer. Totally easy to drink.

Pours deep amber. thin head low retention. Very fruity yeasty aroma. Flavour is clean and fruity with notes of banana. Finishes dry and slightly alcoholic. Not bad.

A: Poured with a large head that seems quite creamy and frothy... diminished down to 1-finger size. Lacing is fair, but not what I expected from the size of the initial head. Body is a copper color and hazy. S: Aroma of light malt and light yeast. Some orange in there too, and traces of alcohol as well. T: Very nice flavor that begins lightly sweet with malt, and then becomes more fruity and yeasty, as you’d normally expect from a tripel. Little bit of alcohol bite in the finish. M: Medium-bodied with a thin-to-oily texture, and lively carbonation... almost too lively. D: A very decent tripel... not my favorite of the Trappist entries, but still a very good beer.

High carbonation. Nice bitterness, no real hop aroma. Ok beer but nothing special.

from bottle. amber in color. highly carbonated. some good flavors of nut, straw and toffee, but generally masked by strong alcohol taste. An 8% tripel where all 8% can be tasted.