7.2/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7
The third embodiment of this series of oak aged Oude Caert tripels, 75 cl bottle from Drinks 4 U in Deinze, shared with tderoeck. Never saw this coming as I missed the 2016 versions apparently, but then those were even more limited than this one so I guess they were distributed only very locally. This 2017 one, from six barrels in total, has been aged on single malt whisky barrels, allegedly from a famous brand - but a brand that apparently doesn't want its name attached to this beer, as its identity remains anonymous. Towering high, irregularly lacing, egg-white, stable, moussy head over a hazy, deep yellow blonde beer with pale orangey tinge. Aroma olf ripe banana, vanilla-ish oak wood, apple sauce, coriander seed, whisky, apricot jam, sweet white wine, green pear, grapes, butter. Sweetish onset, strong banana isoamylacetate like the basic beer, ripe pear and peach notes, sharply stinging overcarbonation, full and rounded mouthfeel; bready, soft malt sweet body with honeyish residual sugariness on top. Develops more complexity in the finish, where, amidst malt and sugar sweetness, banana ester and soapy-spicy coriander, a delicate vanilla-like oakiness shows up, yet remaining (too) limited in tannic effects; a warming, vinous, more wine- than explicitly whisky-like alcohol effect ensues. Hops provide a soft, earthy bitterness, malt and estery sweetness remain dominant with the coriander very noticeable in spite of the barrel treatment. Ends bready-yeasty and warming. I have no idea how much time d'Oude Caert Tripel spent in a barrel but in any case it wasn't long enough to deeply penetrate the beer with oakiness and whisky aromatics; I usually like oak aged tripels quite a lot, but this one remains too close to its own basic self and doesn't entirely live up to expectations. Still an interesting ale, though, making me curious about the whole project, even if finding bottles of the older variations will probably be quite a challenge.
Tried
from Bottle
on 31 Jul 2018
at 19:05