33cl bottle from Struise Beershop Woesten e-shop.
F: medium, white, average retention.
C: deep gold, hazy.
A: malty, vaguely fruity, bready, bit spicy, orange, herbal touch.
T: full malty base, citrus, bready, juniper, bit herbal, caramel, peppery, nice balanced bitterness, medium carbonation, nice one, enjoyed for sure.

Mezcal-infused tripel (a first for me) by De Meester, from a bottle at Mexcalli, a Mexican-themed bar in Ghent, housed in the part of the old Baudelo monastery that under French occupation and until deep into the 20th century served as a public library. Eggshell-white, moussey, medium thick, largely stable but eventually nonetheless dissolving, over a hazy peach blonde beer with warm, deep orange glow. Aroma of old bread, indeed noticeable spicy mezcal but also ‘graanjenever’ or gin, dry earth, some DMS (cooked green cabbage), bitter garden weeds, apricots, straw, unripe peach, cold pasta, moist white pepper. Sweetish, fruity onset but not wildly estery, rather restrained notes of apricot, pear and Cape gooseberry, fizzily carbonated with smooth body; white-bready core with thin biscuity and caramelly edges, developing a spiciness at first connecting with floral hops, then a more white-peppery effect from the mezcal and lastly a strongly ‘jenever’-like effect from the beer’s own alcohol, which, in the very end, proves stronger than the mezcal itself. Still, this perfectly controlled sweet fruitiness and general smoothness and ‘cleanness’ do their best to counter this effect so all things considered, not the worst tripel around, even if the mezcal is completely redundant to me.

Bottle at Het Mouterijtje Kortrijk. Hazy gold colour lasting white head. Earthy hoppy aroma. Some peach and banana esters. Some more white stone fruit flavours in the mouth. Peach nectarine. Some fruit sweetness then dry finish. Rich ripe.

Pours fairly clear (before yeast addition ) blonde, darker side of blonde to be fair. Medium large white head. Scent is very tripel-typical, as it shows banana esters and phenols typical to a triple, as well as maltyness, a mild touch of (earthy) hops, and quite some balance between al these factors. Taste is sharp, smokey ( I guess that's the mlescal reference? ) the smoke is a real surprise, as I didn't get that in the scent myself, and didn't expect it. it truly is mescal-like smoke as well, not like the rauchbeers we all know (and some love) . medium body, medium high to high carbo (as is the style I guess) and a fairly common, yet well executed triple base. it might not be my favorite style, it might not be my favorite tweak ( not a smoke fan) , I must give my respects to this original take . Very well executed as well. One tripel to seek out , if you want to get a new experience in this overly produced style (at least in BE) where only the very few have a different story to tell.

The 'massieve ale' (strong dubbel) in this series of Pottelbergh beers from Kortrijk, bottle from Dranken Pauwels shared with Steve. Medium thick, very mousy, membrane-lacing, opening, egg-white head on a hazy mahogany brown beer wiht ruddy hue. Aroma of hard caramel, ruby port, fresh thyme, clove, cranberry coulis, bubblegum, tea, 'jenever', brown honey, nutmeg, damp tree leaves, dried porcini. Sweetish, fruity onset, cooked red apple, medlar and pear, hint of sourish dried blackberries, medium carbonation with smooth mouthfeel, quite full; lingering candi sugariness over a hard-caramelly and brown-bready maltiness, sweet but carrying a soft toasty-bitter edge, leading to a very boozy finish with badly hidden, 'jenever'-like alcohol destroying the initially pleasant flavours rather than uniting them into a whole. Herbal hop bitterishness, candi sugar, clove-like phenols and caramel malt flavours turn out strong enough to survive this booze onslaught, though - but do not succeed in entirely saving the balance here. Too boozy and too phenolic for me, need finetuning, but I have to admit that the general idea is a promising one (if very classically styled) so this Rustiek Bruin could one day turn into a very solid quadrupel, if the Pottelbergh people are prepared to work on it a bit...

One of countless new(ish) client brewers in Belgium today, this one located in the city of Kortrijk and having its beers brewed at De Meester. I read about this Tripel Pottelbergh last year already but only now managed to score a bottle, at Dranken Pauwels in Heule near Kortrijk. Medium thick, membrane-lacing, finely mousy, off-white head quickly showing gaps but retaining well; hazy peach blonde robe with orangey tinge, turning cloudy with sediment - and adding a few large, translucently white and not very appetizing flakes of protein in the end, sinking to the bottom of the glass and ending up there looking like pebbles (or indeed, excusez le mot, turds) in a pool of mud. Aroma of ripe peach, banana mush, honey, sugar loaf, coriander seed, cooked red apple, ripe pear, hints of 'appeljenever', some orange peel which may or may not have been effectively used here, plum compote, melting powder sugar, wodka, potato peel, 'pepernoot' and clove. Sweet onset, estery hints of ripe pear and peach again, banana and some pineapple, white candi syrup but nowhere cloying, lively carbonation adding minerally 'stings', full and smooth mouthfeel; soft bready maltiness harshened a bit by ongoing stingy carbonation, light caramelly edge, lingering honeyish sweetness but not over the top for a tripel. Softly spicy coriander seed sets in after that, while a floral hoppy note also develops, depositing a gently lingering bitterness on the finishing stages; malty and estery sweetness remains present as well, until everything gets a bit 'deformed' by wodka-like, inelegant, peppery and astringent alcohol, which drowns out the much more fragile bitterness provided by the hops. Spicy and bready yeasty effects accompany this wodka element till deep into the tail. The protein 'turds' visually bothered me a lot so this one is losing a lot of points in the appearance department, the whole remains a tad unbalanced and the alcohol, though firmly positioned in the final stage, easily gets wry and obnoxious. If the alcohol were better masked and the whole thing can be cleaned up a bit, I think this one surely has the potential to become a really good tripel someday, if, again, a very predictable, ordinary and traditional one, adding absolutely nothing to the already vast ocean of tripels flooding this conservative country. Being Belgian myself and basically having grown up with tripels, it has been annoying me for years that so many recently launched brewers (and client brewers - perhaps even more so) here seem to find it necessary to carry coals to Newcastle as the British say. Sure, a tripel is always a 'hit' among conservative Belgian consumers because it is the first style they expect from a 'specialty' brewer, but if the influence of the global craft beer movement in Belgium keeps getting stuck in churning out more of the same, I would not be surprised if other 'beery' countries start to regard us as a kind of open-air museum - if, of course, this is not already the case today.

31/12/2018 - 33cl bottle from a trade with jerre. Dark brown, with big beige tanned head. Nose is dark malts, spices, bit fruits, licorice. Taste is malts, bit spice, licorice, bit nutty, some chocolate, roasted in the aftertaste.