Aroma: Malty sweet with spices and slightly port like. Flavour: Malty and fruity sweet with notes of caramel and cherries and some bitterness. Colour: Golden amber with a white head.

From Jun 2007

This one purs from 750ML caged and corked bottle, whoa, the cork exploded out of the bottle as soon as I removed the cage and hit my ceiling!!

Anywho, once I get some into my glass, it has a nice cloudy yellow orange colour and there's a lot of foam and lacing. A very pleasing Ale to the eye for sure.

The smell is all sorts of fruity and yeasty and peppery and malty and...you get the picture. ;^)

The taste is as complex as the smell. Big sweet n sour notes up front with a lot of spicy hops hovering around. I'm getting orange, coriander, clove, pepper and the list just goes on and on. There's even a bit of funk and earthiness about midway through and the finish is citrus fruit bitter and it leaves a long and enjoyable aftertaste. This is a heck of a good Tripel that's holding my attention with and during every sip. Man.

After a few more sips, I can taste and savour some ripened fruit, and the tartness, that started from the very first sip and continues with every subsequent sip, makes me pucker my mouth a bit but that's just fine and dandy with me and encourages me to take yet another..you guessed it... sip. With all the complex things going on here, I find the abv doesn't even come into play and that makes for some excellent drinkability.

Mouthfeel? About as smooth as it can get. The carbonation is on the light side(despite my bottle sending the cork almost into orbit) and very appropriate for the style. The *only* thing I could complain about it is...it's not available locally so I had to get my sample from the good folks at Liquorama for US$8.99 + shipping; Worth every penny, in my book.

Bottom line: An *excellent* Tripel because of the complex flavours that hit my palate and one that I'd get again without hesitation. If you see some on the shelf of the store *you're* in, by all means, grab at least one bottle and see what you think.

Bottle as St Stefanus at The Beagle, Sproughton, Ipswich. Poured hazy mid gold with a frothy, lasting off-white head. Aroma is of yeast, bread, malt, sweet fruit and slightly perfumed. Medium to heavy sweetness, moderate bitterness. Medium body, oily texture, soft carbonation.

33cl bottle at L'Alternativa, in Bertinoro, Italy. Pours gold, slightly orange, fairly hazy, with gross white foam. Aroma is fruity from esters, caramel and alcoholic. Body is fairly dense, especially being felt in the finish, with good carbonation. Taste is intensely sweet and caramel, with some underlying bitterness which helps partially in enduring the sweetness. Finish is not particularly interesting.

Bottle, 0.33l. 7% ABV. Slightly hazy copper pour with one finger creamy white head. Good retention, nice lacing. Nose is mostly yeasty with some grainy notes to it. Subtle hops. Thin to medium body with average texture. Quite strong on the carbonation. Boozy and bitter taste. A bit unrefined, rough on the edges. Aroma of malts, grains, yeast. Vegetable-like notes. Slightly metallic. Pretty straightforward, lacking in complexity. A bit boozy mouthfeel. Dry and bitter finish. Overall, quite average and generic. A bit disappointed with this one.

Slightly darker than golden with a bit of haziness. Big creamy white head, good retention and nice lacing. Smell has fresh fruitiness (expecially orange, peach) and peppery spiciness. Taste has honey, a bit of a sugary feel, strong fruitiness (orange, peach), slight spiciness. The abv may not be that high but a bit of alcoholic warmth is still to be felt. Overall it’s a dominantly sweet beer but somehow it does not feel at all over the top. Tastewise it’s definitely a vivid/intense beer, though maybe a bit unrefined. Medium bodied with high carbonation, quite mouthfilling and slightly creamy. Overall a pretty enjoyable beer.

bottle. Dark golden with a small white head. Malty start with yeasty furity hints, shy fruity flavours of dried fruit mainly.