The latest in this series so far, a series surfing on the lasting popularity of cycling in Belgium, having kicked off with a basic blonde version back in 2010 already and only now beginning to expand. Vichy bottle from the Carrefour supermarket in Sint-Denijs-Westrem. Towering high, snow white, cobweb-lacing, very pillowy and foamy head slowly receding over a misty old golden beer with ochre-ish hue. Aroma of ripe banana, brioche bread, cheap calvados, industrial honey, green apple, something persistently cinnamon-like almost overpowering the obligatory coriander seed, white bubblegum, field flowers, grass, withering rucola, pineapple, pear, clove, rainwater. Sweet onset with a lot of banana ester (isoamylacetate), bubblegummy though this could admittedly have been even worse, with side elements of pear, pineapple and green apple; lively carbonation with minerally effect, piercing through a slick, smooth, cereally core doubtlessly 'filled' with white candi syrup - feeling too slick, too slender and bit 'empty'. Honeyish residual sugars sit on top of this and linger till deep into the finish, creating a general effect of overt sweetness; some phenolic clove passes by meanwhile, along with a light floral hoppiness (chamomile) but too little actual hop bitterness to my taste even for a 'commercial' tripel. An apple element (likely acetaldehyde) persists too, combining with the very obviously present, yet not overly harsh alcohol into a somewhat calvados-like effect in the very end. Boozy though tolerable as such especially seen the genre to which it belongs, but also too sweet, overcoriandered and too banana-forward - in other words, tasting like many other of the more 'macro-oriented' tripels in Belgium, and that includes Bavik's own Petrus Tripel. The existence of the latter makes me wonder what the 'raison d'être' of this completely redundant new tripel is, other than making money out of cycling amateurs who enjoy the cycling season in the Flemish Ardennes with a glass of tripel...

Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Spicy peppery Belgian yeast, malt, light fruity, alcohol, hint of noble hop. Moderate bitter and medium sweet. Good Tripel.

Huge, light-yellowish head, fed by lively carbonated plated gold beer and textbook lace. White candi sugar dominating spicy and herbal notes, peppery, undergrowth branches. Faint rainwater/wet dog. Alcoholic, boozy characteristics overlying partly toasted malts; white candi sugar, scorched. Some yeast features; branches. Warming up, more bitterness, acorns. Sharpish feel, alcoholburn, bit slick. Very well-carbonated. Another 'tripel'. Too expensive for the boozers on the market benches or on the verges near de koerse, but in the end not much more than a top fermented maltliquor. Txs to Stef!