Dark Horse Sapient Trip Ale

Brewed by Dark Horse Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Tripel
Marshall, Michigan USA

Sampled blind at "Better Know a Style: Abbey Tripel". Pours a clear golden with an off white head. Aroma is citrus and yeast with spice. Sweet sugarry flavors. Brown sugar, candied sugar, citrus, caramel and biscuity malts.

sampled blind at "Better Know a Style: Abbey Tripel". pours clear golden with white head. nose is fruity, pear, yeasty, spice. flavor is sweet, biscuity, orange, sweaty, toffee, sweet.

Bottle. Pours a dark hazy amber. Small white head, dissipates and leaves little islands. Some lacing is evident. Aroma of fruit, and yeast. First sip is fuits, some spice, and some alcohol. The feeling on the mouth is almost full, but not quite. The finish is a mild fruit, more of a spice and a heat and flavor of alcohol. Overall a pretty decent trappist style.

Pours a dark, hazy amber color with a white head. The aroma was fruit, malt, and a little yeast. The flavor was sweet with a little spice. The alcohol, while slightly noticeable, was not overpowering. It was pretty good.

12 oz. bottle. Pours a hazy light orange color with a thin white head. The aroma is sweet malt, yeast, light spices, and fruity. The flavor had a nice sweet malt base that containes bananas, peaches, light spices, yeast, bread, and light alcohol. This is medium to full bodied and easy to drink.

bottle. hazy yellow, brown with moderate white head. nice fruity yeast aroma - subtle, not overpowering. light sweet taste with a mild/moderate bitter, followed by a noticeable alcohol burn. alcohol flavoring hangs in mouth after sip. i like the fact that this wasn’t syrupy like many tripels can be, but the alcohol made for a rough finish. surprising for an 8.5 - i would have guessed 10 from the taste. overall it rounded out a bit as it warmed. has potential but needs some work.

12 oz. bottle, no bottling/freshness date, but because Dark Horse is just now hitting the shelves of stores in my area, this is probably of recent vintage, last spring I imagine. Sampled in a chalice. Cloudy appearance, golden orange color, compact off-white head that settled into a thin sudsy lacing, just a minimal amount of laced sticking. Aromas of earthy spice, bananas, clove, apricots and peach, a nice mix of sour, tart and sweet. A backing of grain bready malts and floral, estery alcohol. Airy, creamy medium body with the right amount of softly crisp carbonation. Tart fruity taste, banana, apricots and oranges, along with clove and earthy spice. Some peach fruitiness and Belgian sugars come out in the finish. The hops are mild and stay in the background, just hints of prickly spiciness. Plenty of sweet pale malts with touches of grain. The alcohol is well masked, a low temperature warmth in the palate. Finishes dry and sweet. With a sneaky 8.5% ABV, this can be a dangerous sipper, another quality brew from Dark Horse.

It started well with a nice aroma of orange and flowers, suggesting a low spice quality. The flavors, though, are a bit less enjoyable, with the alcohol really dominating the early sensibilities and then the dry stickiness, yeasty. O.k. but not great. Bottle.