#tripel heus geen zwart goud.

Clear blond body. White creamy head. Yeasty nose. Moderately bitter flavour. Quite ok.

Fles gedeeld door Roelzie. Het is een helder goudbruin bier met een mooi schuim. Het aroma van vanille en hout. De smaak is vol, kruidig met tonen van whisky.

33cl bottle. A clear dark brown beer with a beige head. Aroma of raisins, intense dark malt, ripe fruits. Taste of raisins, dark caramelized malt, red fruits, melasse, some herbs.

Decent beer. Super phenolic and dry but with a lingering background sugary-ness, not in the best possible way. Middling in style. Sterk ams

One of the newest Kompel beers, a Limburg brand dedicated to the local history of coal mining there; a strong IPA hopped with American hop varieties and apparently constituting the third edition of a Nostalgia series, after Schachtknoop and Reddingsploeg, both of which sadly escaped me. Very thick and frothy, intricately cobweb-lacing, uneven, snow white, very irregular but largely stable head on an initially lightly hazed, pale orange-glowing 'old golden' beer, turning more deeply misty later on but retaining its pale orange colour. Aroma of orange zest, ripe melon, bread crust, dried grapefruit peel, fried 'croutons', rusk, dandelion, wet toast, wormwood leaf, horseradish, fried carrots, clove, damp straw, dried chamomile, vague hints of nutmeg, freshly cut grass, vermouth, lightly toasted pumpkin seeds, old dusty paprika powder. Crisp onset, quite fruity with notes of halfripe peach, some green banana and a hint of unripe apricot, sharpish carbonation with minerally (and initially even slightly numbing) effects, rounded and full; classic Belgian breadiness in the middle, beech-nutty, bread-crusty, vaguely caramelly and very lightly toasted maltiness, under a growing hop bitterness eventually taking on an earthy and spicy form, a tad rooty in the end, but not forgetting to retronasally add citrus peel aromas, albeit in a very 'old' and dried kind of way, like a desiccated and withered piece of orange peel you found in your grandmother's spice drawer. Ends dry and earthy, with considerable residual yeasty breadiness and yeasty phenolics (clove, nutmeg) and malty breadiness, bittered in that same earthy way that was present from the start; the alcohol is noticeable and 'jenever'-like, in a half-hidden way. Clearly another 'Belgian IPA' in the sense of 'hop-forwarded Belgian tripel trying to be fancy with American hops' - a tradition of its own these days, for better or worse and largely unintentional, but if this segment is to be recognised as a beer style category, this is certainly not the worst in that segment. Typical Belgian-rooted, but decent Kompel style, I reckon.

33 cl. bottle @ home, bought @ van Rooij, Culemborg.
Dark golden with a white head. Sweet malty aroma with some citrus. Sweet taste with a dry-ish bittter finish.

Bottle from Drankenhandel Leiden. Aroma is dried fruits with brown malts, caramel, spicy notes, plum, and raisins. Flavour is medium sweet and light bitter. Medium body. Enjoyable winter beer, dig the strong dried fruit.

330ml bottle. Clear, faint, orange golden colour with average to huge, firm, frothy, moderately lasting and lacing, white head. Sweet-ish, wheaty and pale malty, yeasty spicy and yeasty fruity as well as slightly grassy and minimally floral, hoppy aroma, hints of honey, a touch of banana. Taste is dry, moerately bitter, slightly grassy and minimally floral hoppy, wheaty and pale malty with little residual sweetness, slightly yeasty spicy and minimally yeasty fruity, a touch of banana, dried banana, white pepper; lingering, bitter hoppy and minimally warming, alcoholic finish. Watery texture, smooth and soft, minimally cloying and minimally pungent palate, fine and soft carbonation. Quiet hoppy for the style, rather simple as well - not bad.