Brugge Tripel

Brewed by Brouwerij Palm
Style: Abbey Tripel
Steenhuffel, Belgium

I went to the lovely city of Brugge about 3 years ago and enjoyed a number of beers there. But this was not one of them. It has taken me until now to find this beer, and of course it shows up in Auckland. After our first day in the office my colleague the Fran and I went in search of sustenance. Anyone who has been to Enzed knows that this word is prinounced like sustunnince and so to avoid confusion we agreed that we would go in search of some ticker, er tucker. The Fran didn’t want Asian which was a bit of a disappointment as there is a good Thai place in town. After confirming that Thai was included in the genus “Asian” we decided to seek other cuisines. A tacky little Italian failed to impress and so the brainwave of the Belgian Beer Cafe sprang to mind. We negotiated our way to Vulcan Lane and went into the Occidental, which is about as ying as you can get to the Oriental yang that we were avoiding. Talking of avoiding, we were becoming quite adept at that in trying to attract the attention of the Belgian servers, both of whom sounded like they hopped off the last Aer Lingus flight from deepest darkest Oirland. This was my first beer of the night, as should behoove a beer that is yet to be rated... The appearance of this is as expected in a tripel, orange hue and a clean crisp and fluffy head of almost purest white. The Fran was amused at my attention to the olfactory, not the ageing warehouse from which the place seemed to have been converted, but the nose of this ale Certainly aromatic with citrus and pear overtones. The flavour profile to dominate is of a caramel and citrus nature, slightly phenolic which didn’t detract from what I thought to be the low hop presence. In all this is a good beer and one that was able to lead into discussions of the body language of fellow revellers and the fascinating (I am told) meaning of the Ladder Theory. The Fran didn’t give much away on this but all I can say it that one does feel a bit rung out after discussing such intricate meanings of life over a few Belgian ales. Of course the company on the night has skewed this rating to a few points higher, due to the rapier like repartee and charming wit demonstrated by the Fran. Perhaps because you are what you drink the Fran had a special affection for the Hoegaarden.

Thanks phil! Hazy yellow-orange body, small white head. Pear-orange-aroma. Very interesting actually. Taste...foamy, alcoholic, apple.

bottled. A hazy orange color. Actually I thought it was pretty decent for a brugge beer not made in brugge.

Bottle, 330ml. An amber colour with a medium frothy head. Aroma is fresh, crisp citrus, caramel and Belgian yeast. Taste is dominated by caramel with a touch of malt and some clove. A little citrus in the finish. Alcohol somewhat notiable, but citric hops lighten it up a fair bit.

Slightly hazy orange, small head. Light apple and fruity aroma. Very soft palate. Light apple-like light malts but with some richer darker malt tastes too. Slight pepperiness in the hops. Covers the 8.2% pretty well. Fairly mellow.

very standard but not bad. Aroma was faint, but spicy and estery. poured gold with a big white head, and the brewery has chosen a wiezen type glass to serve it in?... flavor is dry and spicy. light on the palate. Not a bad beer.

33 cL bottle. Pours slight hazy orange with a lacing off-white head. Yeasty, fruity and mild butterish aroma. Classic fruity belgian yeast and dark caramel malt dominated flavour. Medium sweet with a solid spice note and a strong maltbase. Nicely balance of these notes into the finish. Quite malty tripel.

Bottle 33 cl. Pours a clear golden with a medium white head and a fruity, yeasty aroma. The flavor is sweet malty, ripe fruits, yeast and spices. A nice hoppy finish. Good triple