Westmalle Tripel

Brewed by Brouwerij der Trappisten van Westmalle
Style: Abbey Tripel
Malle, Belgium

Not my favorite tripel or favorite abbey ale. alcohol was very apparent up front. slightly sour with moderate bitter aftertaste. the fruit flavors were not as apparent as in the double. however, it was very pretty in the glass and was incredibly smooth. head was tall buit very thin.

Rating is from a while back...

Overall Impression: Really nice Tripel. Definitely doesn’t hide the alcohol much, but the flavors are still there. Try this one, or enjoy this one again, I know I will.

Bottle, Dram Shop, Sheffield. A revisit to an old favourite, even drunk it from the bulky ’official’ goblet that lingers at the back of my glass stash. Poured a hazy golden colour with a decent white head. Aroma had classic belgian yeast, with spice and citrus notes. Quite sweet, but not overwhwlmingly so, and on the whole a pretty well balanced mix of fruit, spice, yeast and hop. Quite in your face booze, yet smooth and drinkable. A good thang.

Bottle from Systembolget in Umeå. Pours a hazy orange with rocky egg white head. Nice aroma of spicy marmalade, and banana. Very sweet upfront and then an assertive hot pepper and corriander middle and overpowering alcoholic finish that was too brutal for me.

Bottle from Sam’s. Pours bright deeply hazy golden with slight orange tint. Huge rocky, pillowy head and solid lacing. Smells like it’s dry, but also bready yeast, bananas, clove, some apricot, citrus, and white pepper. Similar on the tongue, but a bit of an alcohol burn. Dry finish. Very good.

Bottle. Golden colour. Fenolic, yeasty, marzipan, banana, spices, alcohol, light smokiness?, a bit of bitterness.

upon oncapping the bottle it decided to explode for no reason that i can possibly think of, it had been sitting upright and motionless for about 2 hours and nothing spectacular had happened before. a thoroughly aggravating start as i’ve never seen beer do that before, and it wasted about half of the bottle. smell is woody, dry and alcoholic. it is cloudy golden with a head that was large but receded. taste is dry, spicy, winey, and a tiny bit of rubber taste at the end. astringent and dry. the palate is harsh but it fits with the flavour. it is something that i would enjoy in a very small amount on a special occasion; westmalle is somewhat pricey but always good.

Appearance: The Westmalle Tripel pours a slightly hazy golden color – very similar to what you’d see from a wheat beer. As with most of the other Trappist beers, this comes with about three to four solid fingers of light head with minimal lacing that disappears pretty quickly. You can tell this has a lot of effervescence by the onslaught of small bubbles swimming swiftly to the top of the glass. Smell: Just as I had imagined, there is a lot of spice going on in the glass. There is an immediate blast of beautiful honeycomb that hits you first, and then it is quickly followed by banana and clove components on the backend. For me, the real joy comes out of feeling like I’ve just stuck my nose in the middle of a fresh honeycomb. On top of what is immediately noticeable, there is a very faint amount of funk that sits way in the back of the nose. This becomes more evident as the beer begins to warm. Taste: I guess one of the best things a beer can do is taste like it smells, and this certainly does just that. Surprisingly enough the honeycomb component I get on the nose translates into the taste very well. I also taste the yeast along with the banana and cloves. In terms of the alcohol, I don’t taste it as much as I thought I would but I certainly feel it about halfway through the bottle. And it’s a small bottle. Mouthfeel: Overall this is an extremely well-balanced beer in the mouth. Because of the style, the Westmalle has a lot of bite due to the sparkling qualities and the enormous amount of head. There is a perfect amount of bitterness, too, which is paired with a vigorous amount of acidity. Normally a beer like this would lean more toward the lighter side, but this one is easily approaching medium body. Overall: Let’s be honest, this isn’t a mind-melting beer. However, it is classic in just about every way. I really love the honeycomb component the most and really like the way this baby smells. I am also a really big fan of the bitterness levels that I get from the Westmalle. It’s not as unique as the Orval (which is still my favorite Trappist ale), but it is definitely a staple and quite enjoyable. It’s proof that consistency is a very good thing.