Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel

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

Bottle from Whole Foods in Alexandria - Cloudy gold, huge foamy white head. Intriguing nose of spicy florals, orange zest, and perfume, with softer notes of pepper and rock candy. Bread tones are faintly woven in. Flavor was very nice throughout with an even layer of spicy, floral, peppery hops throughout, touches of citrus, and a slight earthy tone bringing it together late. Medium bodied, moderate carbonation, dry, bittersweet finish. Don’t go in thinking Dreadnaught or 90 Min, just think La Chouffe (if you have tried it) with some extra hop kick. Very nice IPA experiment that works for me. A nice change of pace from the grapefruit league if you follow....

Golden in color, big foamy white head. The smell is spices, hops, fruits, caramel, and sweet. The taste is hops, some bitterness, fruits, nice feel, yeast, and caramel. Nice balance.

Well, this was interesting to say the least. I poured it into my 1L+ mug because I was feeling that way. It had a ridiculously large rocky head that refused to die. After a violent pour, I got the head to be about 2 inches over the rim of the glass. I musta spent at least 2 hours sipping this, and the head didn’t die until the very end. The lacing was phenominal, and I don’t know what else I could have wanted for an appearance. Aroma was spicy hops... but not overly so. I was expecting a blast but this was relatively mild. Also got notes of the yeast, bananas, spices, some fruit, hint of pepper. Flavor matches all of that, although 9% is hidden amazingly well. My only compliant is that this didn’t taste better. It sat in the glass for 2 hours not because it was so amazing, but because it just wasn’t that enjoyable despite a lot of positive characteristics. It’s a cool idea and I’m always open to this kinda stuff but I didn’t enjoy it all that much.

Hazed and pale pulpy apricot in color with a root beer float-like cone pillowing out the tulip, with a huge glacial drift of a sudsy white for the head. Sugary scarlet lime meets a honey glazed, lemon-meringue graham motif as the matter channels up the nose. Lilies and lilacs give a ginger sweet aromatic herbaceous anthem. Cool effervescence is met with a clean cottony banana complex and a bitter honey coated hop cone flavor. Smooth and complex, with generally a thicker than normal stream. Honey grahams are enhanced with squeezed daffodil juice to create a waxy gloss on the palate. Clover and coriander impart a dry earthen scratch, coupling with the dry, bitter and enzymatic alpha acids. Cotton blossoms get caught in a hop field with marigolds and spruce compounds. Cherry rose bitterness pursues post sip with stark enzymes under nectar-infused butter crème and a hint of lemon-lime tart sweetness underneath and over-top.

33 cL bottle. Pours pale gold with an enormous tight white head that leaves serious lacing. The texture of the head reminds me of the top of a rootbeer float when the ice cream is mostly melted and not mixed in. The aroma is zesty with some nice clove and corriander accents, some forest-floor type earth, some yeast. The flavor is zest, clove, and grassy hops at first, then gets slightly earthy and yeast toward the middle. An ambient lemon and pine bitterness develops toward the finish, where there is also some warmth and a hint of crackers. Dry, zesty hop bitterness lingers forever in the aftertaste. As it warms it gets a light honey note and increased spiciness. Not bad at all.

Huge foamy eruption before the cap was removed. Big rocky white head that sticks around, a classic Munich brauhaus pour. Nice herbal, grassy weed aroma . Light/medium body and very smooth. Dry cracker malt taste up front with an incredible sweet spicy mix of west coast and euro hops to finish. very easy drinking, love this one. 1307

Murky yellow lookin feller with a big ’ol head. The flavor is somewhat bitter but mostly sour with a dominate lemon flavor and some spices. Sort of an IPA and Tripel mix but I guess thats the point. Its ok but Chouffe has better stuff.

Bottle. I was in the beer store the other day to fill out a trade request, when the beer manager approaches me with this, he tells me it just came in the back, so I told him it is going out the front with me. Pours a hazed dark yellow with an amazing super thick head that overflowed on me while I was trying to read the bottle and pour it at the same time. Just a big white volcanic head. Sweet lemon and yeast nose with hints of citrus hops around. Yep, lots of lemon citrus here, some orange flavor, some dinner roll flavor too. Getting some grapefruit on the back end. The first taste shook me a bit, but I think it was due more to it being the first thing I have tasted today. If I had food in the house this would be a nice meal beer, as is it works as breakfast on it’s own. The earthy flavor from the yeast and the sweet malt background work well with the abundance of hops without over doing it. I like this one. Ap-4 ar-7 tas-7 pal-4 ov-16