Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

The second one in this range, basically a hobby brew from two guys in Sint-Martens-Latem commercialized through De Graal (the original one, a hefty quad, since 2003). Went by unnoticed until I stumbled upon it coincidentally at Wunderbar in Ghent – never thought I’d find a tick in that place, and certainly not a beer that hasn’t already been added here. Thrown completely into the glass by the guy behind the bar, I didn’t get a chance to pour it carefully and in two steps as is custom with bottle-fermented Belgian ales, but anyway: very irregular, ‘ragged’, egg-white head, quickly turned into an irregular but stable moussy ring and small dots of foam in the middle, on a cloudy peach blonde beer with ochre-ish tinge. Aroma of overripe peaches, rusty iron, cooked sweet potatoes, gin, caramel candy, banana mush, soggy white bread, stewed apples, honey, ‘jenever’, earthy turnip and a vague hint of ditch water with rotting algae in it. Expectedly sweet onset, peachy, banana, pear and fried apples, very strong and painfully numbing overcarbonation calming down afterwards, full and smooth mouthfeel – feeling a bit thinner than its impressive 10+% ABV. Bready and lightly caramelly malt body made sweeter by quite a lot of residual, honeyish sweetness, while esters continue till the finish; late, earthy and bit rooty hop bitter touch, retronasal spicy phenols and warming, ‘jenever’-like alcohol, but the aforementioned sweetness gets the last word. Your run-of-the-mill sweet Belgian tripel, a bit amateurish and messy, but generally decent and enjoyable enough for what it intends to be, like its quadrupel counterpart.