After pioneering in the first, still traditionally Belgian wave of craft beer (‘avant la lettre’) in this country in the seventies and eighties, Abbaye des Rocs has long stuck to its core range of ultra-solid ales, but is recently showing a renewed interest in innovation, especially barrel ageing; indeed some of their beers, including the Triple Impériale, should fit the barrel treatment perfectly… This is Triple Impériale aged on cognac barrels; only 500 bottles, with a distinct oval ‘intersection’ much like e.g. the bottles traditionally used by St. Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk, England, were made, at least in the second batch (I have no further details about the first batch). My rating here concerns bottle number 269 from that second batch, generously shared by Leopold, thanks! Medium thick, mousy, cobweb-lacing, egg-white head on a hazy bronze-brown beer with warm mahogany hue. Aroma of caramel candy, burnt sugar, dried cranberries, toffee, bubblegum, banana peel, vanilla from the oak wood, red apple, relatively subtle cognac, cloves, stewed pear, fig, anise. Sweet, fruity onset, banana ester mingled with pear and fig hints, medium carbonated; soft, quite full body with a bubblegummy aspect lingering about. Caramelly and brown-bready malt base with a layer of honeyish residual sweetness on top, phenolic clove and (vaguely) nutmeg and anise aspects, herbal hop bitterishness and indeed a light tannic effect of wooden barrel in the end, merging with a brandy-tinged warming alcohol effect. This effect remains however quite subtle, with the banana ester, caramelly malts and bready yeast notes enjoying equal attention, if not more. The young geeks that are used to outrageous craft beer with very outspoken flavours will not be too impressed with this one, I’m afraid – if this is the audience Rocs has in mind, then I think the barrel (and cognac) aspect needs to be played out a whole lot more, as it remains, in all, very subtle here. That said: this is as solid a Belgian ale as it gets, like the brewery’s core range which I have very fond memories of, and I think the proportional subtlety with which the barrel ageing was applied here, is an altogether useful thing to learn to appreciate. I have no complaints about this and may even buy a bottle of it for myself, if they are still available.