Maredsous 10

Brewed by Brouwerij Moortgat
Style: Abbey Tripel
Breendonk-Puurs, Belgium

Huge fizzy white head that mostly lasted. Good lacing. Clear sparkling golden color. Yeast, spice, coriander, citrus, caramel, liquorish. Full bodied with an average carbonation and a light alcoholic texture. Nice moderated sweet flavor with some bitter warming alcoholic bitterness. Sweet spicy finish.

’Utterly boring’ is the last note at the bottom of my page of scribble, I found this as monotone as a single drum-kick recurring for hours on end, frustratingly lacking something to give it life.
Into a chalice at around room temperature. Head, as expected does its rise on the pour, a big, dense messy off-white mass that further expands, holds well and laces wildly. The beer a very hazy, almost muddy, tawny amber with minute bubbles streaming endlessly. Aroma, so feint I thought I must have a head ’Cold’. What I did get was chemical, medicinal alcohol with some fairy-floss sugary goodness. Big frothy, come smooth palate like a chocolate mousse. Toffee and caramel, and undeniable butterscotch gamminess on the palate, sweet but controlled only by unnecessarily higher alcohols that feast off the palate in back and into the yeasty, bready, gluggy, oily swallow. It becomes, amongst its diacetyl and fusel ridden palate, quite doughy, and altogether bothersome, awkward on the palate. I didn’t like this one at all, obviously, but a back-up came as the wife tasted it saying it was "like yeasty bread dipped in Vodka". A re-rate might come, but I’m sure the sample I tasted was in true form. Ahhhem!!! (33cL, BBE 03/09, Int’l Beer Shop, W. Leederville)

ACBeerfest-750ml bottle-pours a light tan head and yellow/gold color. Aroma is sweet, yeast. Taste is sweet medium malt, yeast, perfumy, spices. OK carbonation. Occasional.

Bottle. Best before 2003. Pours a hazy orange color with almost no head. Malty yeasty spicy aroma. Sweet malty warming spicy flavor with hints of yeast. Sweet fruity warming finish.

Full and fruity nose. A deep golden color with an off white head. Initial taste is sweet, with a spice taste coming through early on and a taste of alcohol. Medium bodied, nice finish.

Medium offwhite head. Deep orange body with lots of carbonation. Deep tropical fruit and caramel aroma with notes of spice, bread, and soft metal with a kind of medicinal, tobacco-like background. Deep, spicy taste of that medicinal, tobacco-like thing with strong fruity notes. Powerful, chewy mouthfeel. Some alcohol heat. Dry, spicy aftertaste. Very nice. (0.33l bottle.)

Pours a clear, brilliant sparkling golden color. Head is big, white and frothy with good retention. It leaves a nice and stable film. Aroma is yeasty/fruity with subtle maltiness and hoppy traces. Notes of raspberries, apricots, apples and oranges in the surface. What’s weird is a hint of fussels, burnt plastic and loads of medicinal/alcoholic presence too. Flavor is sweet with a huge alcoholic presence. Almost a spirit. Notes of fruits, cherry, liquor, muscat, medicine and oranges. Overpowering alcohol....this is too much. Medium body, medium to low carbonation. Oily texture. Long alcoholic finish. Sweet aftertaste. Too much alcohol and that burnt alcoholic presence. I didn’t enjoy this. Maybe I had a bad bottle.

In the 750 mL bottle from Beertopia. Pours dark clear gold with a large thick white head. Dominant bubble gum aroma immediately strikes you in this one. Slightly medicine-like. Flavor is sweet, but not so rock candy sweet that you are distracted by it. I found this odd in that there was no alcohol in the nose or the mouth, but boy do you get a serious belly burn once it gets inside of you. Overall, not magnificent, but a fairly good tripel for under $8 a bomber.