Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

The follow-up to the blonde 9150, but this time brewed at De Graal (and bottled in steinie bottles) instead of Boelens. From De Vidts in Sint-Niklaas. Very thick and foamy, pale yellowish egg-white, densely mousy, paper-lacing, stable head on an immediately misty, deep peach blonde beer with orange-amberish hue, turning a bit more reddish and more deeply misty with sediment but generally looking fine for a tripel. Strong but classically tripel aroma of ripe banana, cooked apple, powder sugar, noticeable 'sourish' carbonation, sweetbread, cooked potatoes, freshly cut grass, old cloves and old ginger powder, gin, damp straw, melting butter, white bread dough, soapy coriander seed, moist earth, whipped cream, bitter tree leaves, white pepper, something faintly sulfuric, dish water. Fruity onset, banana ester with a bubblegummy effect tempered a bit by cooked apple, peach and ripe pineapple notes, lively carbonation but nowhere harshly stinging, full and rounded, fluffy mouthfeel; cooked potato- and banana-like impressions linger along a bready, softly edged, subtly cereally malt sweetishness but the whole refrains from becoming overly sweet so the residual sugars have luckily been kept at bay. The finish shows a deeply situated, earthy and bit leafy hop bitterness as well as growing 'corianderiness', though in this case the coriander does not become exaggeratedly soapy or otherwise overpowering; outspoken breadiness in the end, some spicy clove-like phenols and a warming gin-like alcohol effect, but that sulfuric touch remains all but absent. Ends malt sweetish, bready, boozy and a bit soapy, like all commercially viable tripels in Belgium do. If you don't like tripels, do not bother with this one, but apart from the fact that once again the most obvious of all imaginable Belgian paths has been chosen, this one does carry Graal's experience and expertise in this field. If the commissioner had stayed with Boelens, we probably would have received a very similarly cliché brew with an equally flawless profile, though, so I assume it must have been a matter of price. As stereotypical as De Graal Tripel itself, nothing wrong here, but absolutely nothing of interest either. Being from the Waasland area myself, I can only hope these Kruibeke guys have the guts and the inspiration to come up with something a bit less predictable next time, but my hopes are low.