Rethinking and renewing the old familiar, omnipresent tripel genre in Belgium is, alas, something rarely seen even in post-craft beer days - usually even postmodern 'craft' brewers rarely get past 'adorning' it with New World hops, or barrel ageing it. This one from Hoboken, upon which I coincidentally - and much to my surprise - stumbled in a local supermarket in Ghent, does what perhaps more brewers need to do: take the old tripel and crafting it into something new, without losing track of the genre's core features. This Bombay seems inspired by the fusion kitchen trends in gastronomy that were popular in the late 20th century: to convey an 'Indian' feel, rice was added to the mash and the beer was flavoured with kefir lime leaves and Indian peppercorns. Firm, fairly thick, snow white, irregularly lacing, dense and moussey head kept stable by almost champagne-like sparkling rushing through an initially clear, warm yellow-golden robe with 'old golden', metallic shades, turning misty with sediment. Aroma of banana bread, fresh white bread dough, gin, only a faint whiff of that kaffir lime alas (quickly gone - I am not even sure if I would have been able to identify it had I not known of its presence), yuzu, raw turnip, potato peel, ferrous spring water, ripe pear, red apple peel, something herbal like green tea or dried thyme (possibly the peppercorns), damp kitchen cloth or dish water, vague rubbery note which I think comes from the rice in this case. Fruity onset, sweetish with thin sourish edge, impressions of pear, banana and peach but also something lightly citrusy, maybe the kaffir lime leaves speaking; lively carb, but very fine-bubbled so not disturbing and fit for a tripel. Smooth, lean body, a sweetish white-bready pale maltiness thinned by the rice, which seems to add extra slickness, almost 'glueish', but also a touch of extra sweetishness. The finish has a soft peppery quality - linked to a light herbal note retronasally - but floral hops seem to be a tad stronger; however, neither of these two elements gets to shine fully, as alcohol takes over way before it should, with this burning feel and unpleasantly astringent wryness crashing in before the hops, spices and esters are done talking. The rest is an alcohol burn lingering on the root of the tongue, more so than is typically the case even in an average tripel, and I really hate that - this one, well-intended and original as it may be, loses a serious amount of points because of that at least in my book. A good idea which can be executed much better: less booziness, less rice, more kaffir lime leaves and more of that pepper, and you will indeed have an interesting, idiosyncratic addition to the worn-out tripel formula. Close but no cigar.

Draught White head, soon reduced to lace over metallic golden beer. Strong malt nose, intense 'beery' aromas, dry leaves, peppercorn. Sweet & dry at the same time, lots of restsugars. Again this leafy character, autumn raked. Hints of candi sugar, and lightly toasted caramel. Ends drier, spicier. Some light alcoholfeel, slick, mild carbonation. I find it a tad sweet for a 'tripel', to be honest. If the spicing would have been upped, the character might have benefitted.