Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel

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

Pale, cloudy yellow with a big and lasting white head. Rich fruity aroma where Belgian yeast and American hops come together in a perfect blend, in particular with notes of pineapple, tangerine and peach. Dry and fruity flavour. Hop flavour and bitterness is a good match for the tripel character that I sometimes find cloying.

Bottle from Super Saver. Hazy gold pour with huge, fluffy white head. Aroma of big spicy florals, heavy hops. The flavor is floral, hopcitric, spicy, with a malty honey sweetness counterbalanced by the big hops. This one is well rounded, complex, and for my money, outstanding.

Hazy blonde with an extra thick white head, lacing, forming rings. Hoppy floral aroma, pleasant and smooth. In mouth, a crisp malt with good floral hops, alcohol warmth, coriander, a wonderful hybrid. Rich bodied and warming. Just one word. Wow! On tap at BCTC 2006.

Bottle. Head is initially large, frothy, rocky, white, fully lasting. Body is hazy medium yellow, bottle conditioned. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain), moderately hoppy (flowers, herbs, apricot, resin), lightly yeasty (cobwebs), with notes of bubble gum, mint, and cotton candy. Flavor is moderately to heavily sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Finish is lightly to moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, moderately bitter. Medium to full body, velvety texture, lively carbonation, moderately alcoholic. Pretty nice stuff. It doesn’t rock me as hard as Hopsinjoor, but it’s still very enjoyable.

Post-Mondial tasting at Goldorak’s pad, from 750 ml bottle. A thick, hazy light gold body with nice lasting fluffy head and fine lacing....somewhat spicy, thick malty-sweet aroma with strong citric hops showing up rather late, but with impact....the body is an excellent mix of influences, the spicy PNW hops actually enhancing the moderately to heavily sweet tripel malts, floral-honey notes throughout keeping things from getting too out-of-hand bitter, until near the very end where the IIPA character starts to take over.....light, soft, fluffy mouthfeel and strong carbonation. Very well done indeed, if all cross-cultural collaboriations work half as well I’ll be very excited!

Aroma of yeast and light banana. Suggests a spicy hefeweisen! Slightly hazy beautiful golden glow. The head disipated quickly, leaving lacing in the snifter. Starts with banana, and a whole lot of other things, light malt follows, and it ends with sweetish hop. This is very confusing. It’s wonderful, providing the hop a hop head wishes, but not so strong as to overpower the malt. And it seems to be simultaneously sweet and dry. Unique. For now.

Another hopped up Belgian beer that did not work for me. The body was hazy medium yellow with a frothy and thick white head. The aroma had some funky swiss cheese with hay and apples. There was also some cinnamon. The taste was very hoppy, I could not smell much in the way of hops. There were orange peels with some apple core and cinnamon spice. This was unbalanced. Interesting, but not very drinkable.

Fresh, clean, grassy aroma with citrus, lavender and some soapy notes. Opaque yellow body is topped by a low white head that lasts well and leaves some lace. Very sweet and somewhat grainy flavour with balanced strong bitterness and herbal, grassy, haylike hop flavours that linger. Medium body is lively on the tongue with a soft textured effervescence. Bottle (Mondial tasting 2006).