Castelain ChTi Triple

Brewed by Brasserie Castelain
Style: Abbey Tripel
Benifontaine, France

750 ml corked & caged bottle, no date, purchased at Cellars in Minnetonka, MN (July 2005). Cellar temperature, Unibroue stem glass. Beautiful pour, a luminous dark amber-gold, touch oily but generally clear, with a voluminous slow-subsiding white frothy head that throws itself in gouts against the glass as it dies.....nose is slightly alcoholic at first, a bit oxidized, yeasty-cobwebby, with hints of maple and lavender, fairly pleasant....as it warms the fuesol alcohol takes over, along with...corn syrup? ..... body is moderately sweet, slightly boozy with a grain alcohol character more reminiscent of malt liquor and a somewhat syrupy mouthfeel, touches of honey and maple amidst the haze....finishes somewhat bitter, metallic and chalky. It sounds bad but is actually not undrinkable, just not that much of tripel and betraying too much alcohol. At least I might finish the bottle, unlike some of this brewer’s wares.

Quaffable would be the politest way of describing this one. Like the rest of the Ch’ti range this one is a little too thin and overly subtle to bare up against the big boys. Tasted from the ’nip’ bottle into it’s own bulbous chalice, quite cool. Poured a sunny gold, slightly hazy, very finely carbonated and showed good lacing but rather lacked in the head department producing no more than a film of white. Initial burst of sulphury yeast and feta cheese gave way to gentle (too gentle!) notes of toffee, breadcrumbs, soft melonous fruits and spicy alcohol. In the mouth it’s not overly big in body, in fact a little too thin for style, but it’s smooth and soft on the palate. Subtle in flavour; notes of sweet citric fruits, a dash of vanilla, bready yeast and an alarming presence of higher alcohols manage to race across the tongue with ease. Finish has pine nuts, oranges and vodka which I could best describe as ’HOT’. Remarkably, it comes off as fresh and quenching, kind of like a vodka & orange. I love my Tripels, so this one sits outside the circle by a long-shot. Unremarkable!!! (25cL, 08/09/06, Int’l Beer Shop, W. Leederville)

(corked and caged bottle - 750 ml) Hazy, light straw color with a thin and fizzy white head that goes away quickly. Aroma is light, yet rather malty and spicy. Taste begins with a very dry and fruity sweetness with a smooth and tart malty middle and a very watery and tartly bitter finish. Aftertaste is a little bitter. Very thin tripel.

Large Bottle. Pale gold colour, plenty of fizz with a large white head. Very easy drinking beer which is a bit too heavy on the honey laden overtones. The sweetness ruined it a little for me as all I could taste and think of was this.

This strong Belgian style ale is nothing really speacial when taken in context of its style. It pouurs a highly carbonated off-gold with a big white head and a salty, all-malts-and-alcohol nose. The tast is highly of alcohol and hits hard at first --otherwise this is a plain and simple, super-fermented, malt liquor.

Clear golden body with a medium size white head. Pretty boring smooth sweet taste. Butterscotch, a touch of spice, watered down honey, and I get a bit of orange in both the taste and aroma. A bit let down by this beer, it was a bit thin, and while there were flavours, there was nothing really making it stand out. So far give me the blonde.

Bottled. Yellowish golden colour with white foamy head. Halfbitter fruity aroma with soem barnyardish hints. Plummy sweet hayish flavour with hints of raising and rye. Aftertaste is breadish, hayish and hoppy. Quite dry.

Bottled (BB 11/2005)
Pale golden, good creamy white head. Bready malty nose. Malty, bready, not very triple-like flavor. No alcohol present. This bottle was maybe past its prime.