Trio
Brouwerij De Koninck in Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgian Style - Strong Ale Regular Out of Production|
Score
6.45
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Alengrin (11675) reviewed Trio from Brouwerij De Koninck 9 years ago
Appearance - 2 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 2 | Overall - 6
De Koninck’s Easter beer, retired since 1992 so I was quite surprised finding it here, but apparently it was still possible to add extinct beers in the early days of Ratebeer, so I got this vintage bottle from 1992 from a private collector just for the sake of science, so to speak. No head: only with very strong forcing and holding the glass half a yard under the bottle upon pouring, some loose, off-white bubbles form, only to disappear again in a matter of seconds. Colour is an orange-hued peach blonde, less amber than the regular ’bolleke’, and since this type of beers darkens with age, I assume it was a blonde beer when it was fresh; starts of more or less clear upon extremely careful pouring, but halfway the bottle, a milky yeast cloud comes in and makes everything misty; evidently a few darker proteins and dead yeast bits from the bottom of the bottle are added as well, sinking to the bottom of the glass. When I add the rest of it in the very end - not intending to taste it anymore - a much darker, ’dirty brown’ cloud comes in, creating the looks of a rain pool on a clay soil. The aroma is one of old beer in every sense, but one that has been kept in optimal circumstances: none of the ’rusty’ and off-putting oxidation (anymore?), but a clear, distinct ’sherryisation’ so to speak, creating a bouquet not unlike very old sherry or even white port, next to hints of stewed pear, soggy brown bread, old white pepper, sweet breakfast cereals, old dried orange peel, home-made apple juice, ginger, even a hint of milk chocolate. Sweet onset, apple sauce and pear juice with a very light sourish touch, no carbonation left at all, further thinning a body which is already heavily thinned out by age (in other words: by proteins having coagulated over time). Apricot-like and caramelly sweetness, thinned as said, remains in the middle, and the finish adds only this sherry effect retronasally (not disagreeable at all actually) as well as a hint of warming, ’jenever’-like alcohol, but no sign of hops: if this beer was only ’slightly’ bitter and mainly aromatically hopped, as the label states, then it should not come as a surprise that after almost a quarter of a century, both hop aromas and bitterness have completely vanished. A whole lot of sugary sweetness remains in the back of the mouth but not in a sticky way, rather toffeeish, and matching well with the ’aging’ alcohols responsible for the old sherry-like effect. This beer was never intended for aging and certainly not for such a long time, but in comparison with some other Belgian ales of 20+ years I had in the long beer drinking part of my life, I must say I had expected way worse; this has actually aged quite graciously, though there is not a shadow of a doubt that as good as nothing of its original flavor has survived. Instead, it has become something completely different, ’unbeery’ almost, ruled by an elegant old sherry effect, but with not much left underneath, having lost all of its carbonisation and body. I guess I can only rate it here in the way it is now presented to me, as I never had this when it was young, but it being an interesting old beer tasting, I will not be too harsh on it.
potjebier (6654) reviewed Trio from Brouwerij De Koninck 10 years ago
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 8
Notes from early 90s. Bottle 1991, bought in Antwerp. Clear blonde to amber color. White head. Aroma’s: caramel malts, fruity. Aroma’s: Light to moderate sweet, malt/grain. Medium bodied. Finish:short finish, slight herbal/spicy, with a light bitterness. Nice one-off(?) with typical Konick characteristics.