La Trappe Tripel

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

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip

759ml Bottle... A rich amber/burnt orange pour with a moderate beige head. Nicely drying on the palate, noticeable esters and yeast spices. Some danky tones with banana fruits, citrus, tropical fruits mixed with hearty black pepper-spice, and malted barley sweetness that hinted towards honey Cheerios.

1st pour from a 750 ml corked and caged bottle produced a very clear bright dark orange into my snifter. It had about a half of an inch worth of head which lasted a bit and settled down into a thin layer of foam. Nice carbonation can be seen and felt. It smells lightly of banana and other fruits. The taste is of sweet banana and the finish is somewhat dry. Finishes real clean for the initial flavor. 2nd pour from same bottle yielded a cloudy orange class full of particulates. The yeast got out. The aroma is more intense, but the flavor remains about the same.

Bottle. Golden amber with large white head. Fruit in the aroma, apple and some notes of alcohol. Sweet, almost some honey. Caramel and some spices? A nice tripel :-)

Vegassssss....
Poured out a hazy amber brew with super fine sediment and a below average sized white cap that hasn’t the power to remain for long. Cool aroma! toffee, candy, wet bark, dark dried fruits, sweet and very interesting spices, dried bananas (faint), pink bubble gum of lower quality. The taste is pretty good but quite sweet, plums, sweet malts which hold up the body of flavour, yummy soft candies, something resembling lemon meringue - no crust, soft, acceptable spice with hints of weak pepper, sour apple on the finish. There is a shit load of carbonation here that is perfect, medium bodied, leaves a bit of a pasty coating - I finally noticed the alcohol on the taste and in my head. Finishes with a nice spice and fading bitterness which never totally disappears. I’ve noticed vanilla on one of my last sniffs before I drained the bottom into my gut and a touch of banana in the taste. Normally I don’t enjoy triples too much but I’ll have to say that I rather enjoyed this in under 5 minutes.

UPDATED: OCT 19, 2006 Beer pours deep gold/orange with a thick, uneven, gorgeous off-white head. The aroma is very malty, yeasty, and bready - hints of spice. The taste begins very sweet. The middle of the flavor asserts some mild hop flavor and some fruit (hints of prune). The finish has a little more hops, lots of malty sweetness, yeasty goodness, some spice (nutmeg, cinnamon), and alcohol. The beer is a bit heavy, but the mouthfeel is lightened by the carbonation (not syrupy). The finish is long, sweet, and warming.

Amber body, thin head, lots of fruit. Not my favorite trappist, but I highly recommend it.

Dark hazy orange with a large off white sustained head. Floral peachy aroma. Soft fruity flavour, peach and lemon, caramel and a lot of esters. Soft full body with a very gentle carbonation. A complex and interesting tripel, nicer than some of the other trappist versions.

Poured into a snifter. This tripel pours an amber color with more of an orange hue. Bright white head, with nice retention of about a quarter of an inch, which leads to nice lacing. Aromas of bananas, clove, nutmeg, honey and high alcohol esters. Taste is rather similar to the aromas but with some others thrown in there, bananas, raisins, clove and nutmeg are the leads. No hoppy characteristics at all. Mouthfeel is smooth and clean, very mellow as well, with a mild carbonation level. I prefer other tripels but this is very nice, and drinkable. Definitely worth a try.