Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel

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

Drunk at One Pint Pub, Helsinki during the Belgian beer week 2007. Hah! What a great name. Almost looks like a witbier, lemon yellow, hazy, big white head. Aroma of lemon, peach and flowers. Quite bitter, but not that much. A bit soapy.

Bottle. Poured a hazy pale with a tall frothy head that had some lasting and thick lace. Nice floral and citrus aromas with a malt backing. The flavor was much like iced tea; some spices, caramel, and a light fruit and hop background. Medium body and dry, with a light bitter aftertaste.

Cloudy golden pour with an amazingly gigantic creamy white head ... like meringue ... it never really goes away. Almost creepy. Pleasantly hoppy nose with a sugary sweetness. Flavor is a very interesting mix of malty fruit sweetness and hop bitterness. Gains tons of character as it warms. Bready, yeasty, hoppy, fruity ... the lovechild of a tripel and an IPA. Very complex with a dry, grainy finish. I liked it a lot.

hazy yellow pour with a good white head. spicy sweet nose with a suggestion of citrusy hops. mixed fruit , bananas, floral sweetness and bitter hops are all in the flavor. bitter alcohol finish. not bad.

(330 ml bottle from 1828 Vintage House, cellared for 11 mos. after purchase) Pours cloudy apricot-amber with two fingers or so of a somewhat lumpy but soft-looking off-white head. Aroma is somewhat sweet and candyish but also with a tart, semi-sour citrus note. Fairly heavy pine like a big IPA. Mouthfeel is fairly soft but but very lightly pebbly. Big, lasting sturdy sheets of lacing. Flavor of light sweet candyish malt and light fruitiness with a light sweet and sour lemon/citrus zing. Lightly tart. A good deal of piney hop presence like a big IPA but more restrained. Light bitter finish. Alcohol well-hidden. Pretty nice integration of Belgian and big IPA styles.

Wow...what to say negative about this? Beer pours with huge head with lacing stuck all over the glass. The smell of saaz hops leaps from the glass along with honey. Flavor is a wonderful fruity malts, perfect level of spices and a wonderful blend of funky saaz hops and other more bitter hops. Sweet, but not overly so, bitter enough to satisfy the american hopheads but not enough to drowned out the wonderful tripel underneath. Smooth mouthfeel with perfect level of carbonation. Really, really good.

Poured a hazy golden with a large fizzy/frothy white head. Clean crisp aroma of grassy and piney hops, tripel spiciness, some grapes and dry alcohol. Flavor is extremely dry and bitter, with notes of pine and grass hops, some fruit esters, a large amount of alcohol, leading to a finish that seems dominated by an almost astringent metallic bitterness. It really does taste like a marriage between a double IPA and a tripel, but the hops are not as flavorful as they could be and seem to overshadow the complexity of the tripel. I think this "style" has great promise, and I would love to see some other prestigious brewers try their hand at it.

Sample from 750 ml bottle. Hazy yellow colour with an everlasting creamy, frothy, and rocky white head. Beautiful aroma just like a big bag of cascade or amarillo hops – fresh pine, grapefruit and light grassiness – with some light yeasty notes. A touch of sweetness then lots of fresh citrus and piney bitterness. Medium bodied, juicy and very refreshing. Unlike the Urthel Hop-It, this one transcends the tripel style to set it apart.