Not sure what’s going on with this Tripel, but there’s a strong medicinal sweetness soaking through all other aspects of the pint, combining with the sugar to give it a banana Ny-Quil flavor I’m not enjoying too much. Not a dealbreaker; the normal grassy, sunny notes mix with mild green apple for a pleasant brightness, and the finish is somewhat dry. But the banana weirdness makes it a bit hard to get through.

Thanks to my Vermont friends for this one, Canada Thanksgiving 2016. Hazy golden colour with fizzy-bubbly head, short retention and minimal lacing. Nice aromas of pears, Belgian Ale yeast and other sweetness. Hints of vanilla and candy notes. Fruity taste with the yeast. Alcohol is well-hidden.

Refrigerated 12 oz. brown bottle poured into a glass. Hazy yellow with white head. Aroma is clove, medium body, medium/light carbonation, and little lacing. Taste is clove and citrus.

One of the Belgian inspired Weyerbacher ales, purchased at Prik & Tik in Zele, Belgium. Egg-white, regularly shaped but loosely structured, quickly dissipating, non-lacing head eventually leaving not much more than a very thin rim of airy bubbles around the edge and vanishing altogether in the end; warm, pure golden colour with ochre-ish hue, clear with sparse bubbles and a ’fog’ of yeast bits throughout, becoming equally misty and more orangey with deposit. Not unpleasant aroma of dried apricot, yellow passionfruit, dried banana (not so much in the old bubblegum way), old cake, calvados, dry cookies, dried flowers, mandarin peel, fermenting apple somewhere, clove-like phenols, hints of damp straw, faint caramel, weak varnish-like solvents and, luckily also very weak, some DMS (cooked cabbage). Crisp, sweetish onset with dried banana, some peach and traces of white candi sugar, unripe plum sourishness surrounding this sweetness, spritzy but finely structured carbonation, smooth and somewhat oily malt sweetness in the middle, bit caramelly while the fruitiness lingers but not in an overly estery way, rather clean actually, leading to a dryish finish with ongoing juicy malt sweet, some spicy phenols and retronasal DMS again, soft herbal hop bitterishness and a firm glow of ’jenever’- or calvados-like alcohol on the brink of astringency, becoming a bit much in the end, clearly should have been better hidden (which admittedly is often a challenge in this particular style). The concept of tripel, still largely overexposed in Belgium with many very to below average beers as a predictible result of that, has been well understood in this case, and Weyerbacher clearly aims at the top of the quality scale; they succeed in conveying the maltiness, spiciness and alcohol warmth of the better Belgian originals, but the estery fruitiness is cleaner and the DMS, though faint, did bother me a bit - and so did the lack of head stability. In all, decent enough, but definitely not top notch in its class.

750 ml bottle from Tavour. Nose is vanilla caramels, honey wheats cereal, and a hint of bubblegum. Hazy gold with a big off white head. Flavor is moderately sweet and clovey spicy.

Clear medium amber colour, small frothy off-white head, mostly diminishing, minimal lacing Aroma sweet malts, caramel, honey, candy sugar, alcohol. Taste light heavy sweet, medium bitter, malty, toffee, spicy notes, average duration, sweetbitter finish, spicy notes. Medium body, oily texture, average carbonation, quite boozy, more a barley wine than a tripel, very nice.

Bottle pour into tulip glass from Julio’s Liquors. Aroma is mild fruity esters, bubblegum, alcohol, light sour. Appearance before last 10th of pour is hazy yellow/copper--after last 10th pour is cloudy orange--with nice sparkle, tiny fizzy white ring with no lacing. Taste is mild to moderately sweet citrusy ester flavor with mild bubblegum, light tart like a dry champagne. Palate is light bodied with thin, creamy texture, frothy/airy carbonation and dry, crisp finish. Nice warmth in the stomach. Overall, Weyerbacher gets the effervescent, creamy carbonation qualities it is seeking, but I’d prefer something a little meatier. Nothing is particularly big or bold. On flip side, alcohol is well hidden in taste.

Bottle at NYC Craft beer festival. Taste of banana and cloves, rather sweet and heavy.