General Lafayette The Emperors New Clothes
Copper Crow Beer Company in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, United States 🇺🇸
Belgian Style - Tripel Regular|
Score
6.28
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Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5
on tap-pours a thin white head that laces and yellow color. Aroma is very mild medium malt-some sweet. Taste is mild medium malt-some sweet/fruit, faint continental hops, clove. Medium body. Easy drinking.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7
I’m pretty sure this was on draft at the brewpub, July 2006. An orange beer with a thin white head. The aroma is sweet malty with spicy notes of cloves combined with notes of fruits. The flavor is lovely sweet with spicy notes of cloves and citrus, leading to a dry woody end.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 6
22oz bomber shared with Dickinsonbeer at the brewpub on 10/06/06. 2005 vintage
A darker trippel, for sure, but certainly nothing outside of what I would expect. Soft honey colored, with very light coppers and paler gold tints. Clear, with sediment left on the bottom and a rapidly fizzling off-white head that leaves a moderate amount of lacing in patches, on the sides. Moderate amount of medium-sized bubbles flit about at first, in the liquid, but quickly dissipate, leaving behind only the casual upstream.
Wow. If it loses some points for being a bit off the path of a trippel, or Belgian strong golden ale, it certainly gains some points for uniqueness. Namely, a phenomenal amount of blue cheese pours from the glass, being easily noted an arm’s length away. Deep, old and profound, it is joined by dry, white mushrooms and touches of mold/algae. Soft, leafy hops, rather muted and giving no real edge, but more an old, yellow grassiness are notable. Perhaps a touch of zestiness is noted upon warming, but this is not hop-focused by any means. Light sugars, both adjunct and malt-driven provide some softness/sweetness, while white pepper and esterized alcohol give a strong, snappy warmth on the finish.
Not so much of the mushroom/blue cheese in the flavor, and in fact, quite a bit sweeter than it lets on in the aroma. Definite adjunct sugars provide a strong, residual sweetness, lightly syrupy in nature, while plenty of white pepper spiciness combines with light cloves and alcohol to consume the finish. The sugar notes seem to outdo the pale malts, making it difficult to discern which one(s) are in there. You would expect pils malt, but the honey softness typified by that does not seem here too far present. The mouthfeel, save for the slight syrupiness of the beet sugar, is quite lean and lacking of malt comfort/backbone, however, and that seems to be my biggest complaint. That and the esters/phenols and spices build up quite a bit on the end, contributing to further overdying/astringency.
Taking a big guess, but it seems like the beers here could benefit from some type of dextrine rest, as they all seem to be extremely attenuated and lacking in body. But they certainly have character, you can’t deny that. And the blue cheese in this one’s aroma is just marvelous!
Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6
On the dark side for a tripel - no head, medium carbonation. Heavy and on the tart and sweet side. The sweetness overwhelmed any spicy yeast effects. I missed that long dry spicy finish in the best tripels. Somewhat quenching but not a good example.