Corsendonk Agnus (Abbey Pale Ale)

Brewed by Du Bocq
Style: Abbey Tripel
Purnode-Yvoir, Belgium

750ml bottle-pours a creamy white head with hazy gold color. Aroma is malt, vanilla. Taste is malty, vanilla, some hops, mellow.

Hazey pale orange that was so full of floaties that it looked like a snowshaker. Aroma is citrussy with a flowery fruity taste.

miles and miles of sweet grass in a bottle. what i mean is, picture this: out in wind swept montana, when the winter forage is scarce and a bison wearily kicks back a layer of snow to reveal an untrampled golden tussock of bunch grass, this is how that grass must taste to a hungry bovine: honey sweet, crisp as celery, and delightfully nourishing. within this ale, under the blown snow of a frothy head-- a head as ermine white and full as the trim on st. nick’s jacket-- lies my own winter nourishment in a bounty of pale yellow. bright as alberta barley, this tripel has some haze and a gritty wreath of particulate matter on the bottom. in fact, if there were any more ’chunk’ down along the punt, the beer would look like a salsa. the effervesence is sizzling at first, and some patience improves the palette. while waiting i ran my nose along the crown of foam finding the spoor of wintergreen and ginger, taffy and pear. with a feel of sparkling wine, the flavor is a goblet of brandy-warmed fruits beginning with apricot and anjou sweetness and ebbing slowly to pineapple and with a drying and bittering effect of woody cinnamon-- an effect also reminiscent of talcum and toothpaste, but lots nicer. like an old buffalo i chewed the cud right to the bottom, and stayed warm, content and dreamy on this winter night.

Bottle. Poured very blonde. Nice large white head that stayed during the whole beer. Wheat, citrus (mostly lemon) aroma to it. Very bitter to me. Not alot of different things going on with this brew. Very citrus, wheaty flavor to it. Finishes bitter. Not my favorite. But nice to have tried it.

Wonderful aroma with a steady white head. Powerful fruity taste that lingers.

Big white head that lingers. Aroma is surprisingly very lemony. Yeasty flavors dominate, with malt, and a fair amount of bitterness also present. Finish is clean and dry.

Pours a vigorous white head with a fairly lame pale colour. Nice soft carbonation and a beautiful nose of lemons and clove. The flavour is simply disappointing as though it were a watered down version of a blonde or a more serious tripel blended with Pabst. The anticipation from the nose served as a letdown on the palate. On the flipside it is extremely drinkable.

750 mL bottle, BBE Sept ’05, lot no. 131484. Pours pale yellow/gold with a medium foamy white head, bubbles seem to have a little difficulty rising as if the beer is too much for them, lined/banded lacing. Yeast (barn, earthy), oak, and light malt (meal, straw) aromas with a fruity hop bouquet in the mix and a yeasty nose. Buttery yeast and malt flavor, heavily fizzy, moderately bitter and acidic, finish is chalky and hoppy. Light to medium bodied, fizzy and spicy palate that dries out at the end.