6.9/10
—
Appearance 7
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 7
Overall 6.5
Tripel in this brand, from a brewery in the Haute Marne region in eastern France. Longneck bottle generously donated as a gift by my colleague Jarno, cheers! Gusher, so be warned. Yellowish egg-white, moussy, regularly shaped, medium thick, thinning head, eventually opening over a hazy peach blonde beer with pale orangey tinge. Aroma of ripe apricot, banana peel, dry straw, cooked turnip, coriander seed, old apple cake, thyme, clove, gin, vague hints of rotten potato, dry clay, cold chamomile tea, puddle water. Fruity onset, spritzy carbonation (a bit numbing even), sweetish with notes of ripe peach, banana and sweet red apple, vague sourish edge accentuated by the sharp carbonation, rounded and lean mouthfeel; bready malt sweetish middle, some honeyish sugariness on top (unfermented sugars), while that minerally, stingy carbonation continues, eventually becoming spicier with coriander seed adding soapiness and phenolic clove-like effects following suit. Floral hops show up in the end, establishing mild but effective bitterness, stretched out a bit, until a gin-like alcohol glow takes over, barely avoiding unpleasant astringency. Sweet, slender, yeasty, boozy, overcoriandered tripel: I have to admit that, even if there are way too many of these beers around in Belgium itself, this does not perform half bad for a beer brewed about a hundred and eighty miles south of the Belgian border. The sweetness, with lots of residual sugars lingering about and even sticking to the teeth, bothered me the most in this one, but at least it is an honest, quite 'artisanal' ale - I was expecting something way more industrial, to be frank. Passes.
Tried
on 01 Feb 2023
at 15:27