2004 edition Fresh swing top bottle brought to the 3/6/05 tasting by MartinT. Pour is a light, but lustery yellow, with some very light orange tinges throughout. A bit more robust copper and orange and it’d have a 5 from me, no problem. Small white head, decent lacing, with plenty of sediment. Lots of fun stuff going on in this one, where to start? For a swing-top Belgian Trippel from Baei-St-Paul, Canada, this is as high quality a Belgian as any abbey trippel over in the motherland. The coriander nose is so fresh and authentic smelling, it sparks conversation about cooking with coriander and cilantro and how reminiscent of that it smells. Smells like freshly chopped, juicy coriander/cilantro, with just the right amount of Belgian yeast character. A bit of perfumey alcohol esters and even some light pils malt greet the nose. Flavor is not overdone with spice, but instead is flowery, yeasty and has plenty of light lemon sugar cookie dough appeal. Wonderful body for a trippel, not heavy, but nor is it watery or too attenuated. Maltiness near the end, with light spicy hops to finish and more coriander. Another fantastic thing about this is how well it hides the alcohol. As much as I love Dulle Teve, this is just as strong, yet much less apparent.
2002 edition Orange peel, bubble gum, tangerine juice in the nose, nice and mellow this has become. Flavor is a light orange and tangerine juice smoothie, with white pepper and creme de curacao. Subtley rich, if that makes any sense. It feels light and feathery on the palate, but the flavor is about as close to perfectly balanced and as as wonderful as any I have found. Upping this in flavor, it was one of the best things I’ve tasted in a long time. I’m PISSED that they quit making this.