Boelens tripel made exclusively for the Verdronken Land pub, the only pub in Emmadorp, a tiny, remote village in the south of the Netherlands, near the Schelde river and an important, vast natural reserve area; I’ve known this pub since I was a child as it is only a couple of miles from where I live, but until last weekend I had no idea they had a decent beer choice including this house beer. Thick, regularly shaped, foamy, membrane-lacing, snow white head, initially clear orange-tinged peach blonde robe, hazy with sediment. Aroma of dried apricots, dried dandelion leaves, chewing gum, plastic, banana, honey, bread crust, apple, straw, clove-like phenols, ‘jenever’, coriander seed. Rounded, fairly ‘cleanly’ fruity onset, banana ester, peach and apple peel, sweet with a sourish edge, medium carbonated. Lean, rounded, slick caramelly and cereally malt body, lingering honeyish sweetness on top, a tad resinous; floral and a bit rooty hop bitter finish, bringing some balance against the sweetness. Soapy coriander-ish aspects and some clove-like spicy phenols as well as something plastic-like and badly hidden, somewhat wry, ‘jenever’-like alcohol. Very classically Belgian cliché tripel, nothing extraordinary going on here, but admittedly Boelens has improved a bit in recent years and this is a good example of his current quality level. One remark, though: I find it impossible to believe that a special batch would be made only for this small and very remotely situated pub, so this is without any doubt an alias – probably of Tripel Klok.