Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel

Brewed by Brasserie d’Achouffe (Moortgat)
Style: Abbey Tripel
Achouffe, Belgium

Wauw.. finally I got the chance to taste this and it didn’t disappoint me. Cloudy yellow with good white head. Yeast & hops in the aroma. Very balanced & perfectly hopped. Great combination going on right here between & tripel & a Ipa. Fantastic experience. Fresh & floral! Thanks guys!

Poured a hazy orange color with a large white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of orange, grass, floral hops, yeast, buttercream, honey and some barnyard. Taste of tart citrus, spices, aloe leaf, honey, grass, toasted dough, with alcohol and heavy carbonation.

Bottle. Golden colour with an off-white head. Aroma is hop, fruit, yeast. Flavour is sweet, hop, yeast, malt. Nice beer.

Golden color with a medium head. Aroma is an interesting cross of saison (spicy, grass) and an IPA (both citrusy American hops and earthy Noble). The taste is about the same. I don’t pick up on the usual Belgian yeast notes.

First rating
Draught at De Klomp, Linköping, on June 1, 2009
Shady yellow color, big fluffy white head. Spicy and alcohol scent. Spicy, malty, bitter, aclohol, citrus taste. Smooth mouthfeel, medium bitterness.
7/4/8/4/16=3.9

Rerate
Bottle at a blind tasting
On August 30, 2009
Hazy yellow color, fluffy white head. Acidic, citrussy scent. Spicy, acidic, alcohol taste. Tart bitter aftertaste. Smooth mouthfeel, high bitterness.
7/4/7/4/15=3.7

Tried it once more on September 4, 2009. Thanks to deft! Didn’t bother rating since I knew I had it twice on ratebeer already, but had the feeling last night it was very nice and very drinkable. Although a bit too strong to drink the whole big bottle by yourself, at least if you’re doing anything else that same day... But, very nice!

2006 750mL drunk on 4/22/06
Sparkling, rocky, dense, immovable white head produces huge chunks of lacing and actually a rectangular-shaped portion of head rises up in the middle of the head, very strange that part of the head in the middle rises while the outside does not. The body is bottle conditioned, of course, straw golden colored with a light haze and tiny bubbles rising.
Sweet vanilla and other pils malt notes are the first thing I detect in the aroma, not the hops. Clean, Belgian yeast and actually quite lean on the hops. Some light straw and baked baguette stays rather netural, as the lemon-vanilla cakey malts comfort, but I’m left wondering, where are the hops?? If they aimed to keep it balanced, they succeeded, but I was expecting a double IPA-like nose. Some plant-like notes, bit of herbs and a touch of citrus on end. Juicy fruits emerge lightly as it warms, but very reserved and the honey notes from the pils malt are rather heavy. Spicy yeast phenols dry the end, not the hops. Green, American citrus/leafiness is light.
Bitter and lightly phenolic, with hop-vine/hop-bud leafiness, but no overt fruitiness from the amarillo (not much, anyways). Honey and vanilla attempt to assert, but hop bitterness cuts it. Low hop flavor, with yeasty, doughy, dusty notes drawing it back towards the light (Belgian being the light, American hops being the dark side). Some peaches and nectarines on end seem to be the extent. Truly amazing restraint on the American hops if they were just looking to make a unique trippel. If you like chouffe yeast character, you can’t go wrong here. Tightly carbonated mouthfeel with sweet malt on end and more bitterness. Kind of like 8eme jour from Charlevoix where the American hops are used in place of the fresh coriander.
In the end, and after having it countless times on draught, it’s way too tacky sweet and lightly alcoholic for me, with papery hops reminiscent of dead grass. The meaty yeast dosent help either.

Finally a beer that can compete with Duvel as far as head and head retention is concerned. Pours a Beautiful hazy straw gold with high carbonation, tiny bubbles, and a huge fluffy pure white head with extremely tight small bubbles. Head lasts forever and creates a crazy white fluffy tower of a cloud in the center of the beer. Lacing is rediculous as well- as it creates the thickest curtain of cobweb-like bubbles completely encircliing the cloudy tower of head in the center. Aroma is very intense- hoppy, herbal and spicy, almost creates a CO2 burn in the nostrils from the high carbonation! If you inhale through your nose on the first sip in a snifter you will see what I mean. Phenolic aromas accompany citrus, herbal, and more spicy hops. Flavor is lightly sweet upfront then the hops take over to be spicy herbal, earthy and light citrus and grapefruit. Lots of lemon character in the middle, then finishes with a dry very sticky bitterness in the back of the throat. So smooth and easy to drink despite the 9% abv. Very similar in style interpretation to Urthel’s Hop-It, but this one seems like it is a notch better. Amarillo and Tomahawk hops are not as pronounced as you might expect due to the ardennes yeast strain covering them up.

(750ml) Thanks MartinT! Large white foamy head with a banana clouded body. Tart hops and yeast battle, amarillo bottom. Flavour leads with hops and malt, lemon. Flashes of tart hops. Lovely stuff.