Dark Horse Sapient Trip Ale

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

Pours a darker golden/orange with some floaties and small white head. Sweet sugary candied malt aroma, some juicy fruits and yeast and a noticeable hint of alcohol. Nice first taste of candi sugar, lightly doughy, and lesser fruity yeast. The finish is not so pleasant, too much alcohol and useless residual sugar. Nice medium body with fluffy carbonation and very slightly syrupy. Straightforward.... and not particularly interesting

12 oz bottle. Pours orange amber with no real head. Aroma is fruity with cloves, a bit of green apple, a little slightly sweet caramel. Pleasant flavor with bubblegum, cloves, slightly tart apple, some bready malt, and a nice mild hop presence. A tinge of alcohol influence also asserts itself. I’d like some more carbonation, but overall this is one of the better tripels I’ve had.

Opaque light amber, nice white head, slowly dissipating. Sweet and fruity aroma, with some caramel and possibly sour cherries. Sweet flavor followed closely by a pang of hop bitter and alcohol. Not totally dry on the finish. A bit of sour even. Really nice lacing. Not complaining, but not the best triple style ever.

Bottle in trade from ford9719. Thanks dude!
Pours a really nice looking rich, opaque and bright orange color with a very small offwhite head. Smell is fruity with banana, clove, orange and yeast. Taste is very heavily spiced with lots of clove and yeast notes. Kind of trails off in the finish and ends a bit thin, flavorwise but with a slight astringency. A bit of alcohol in the flavor too. Not my favorite brew, but interesting, nonetheless.

Bottle. Pours a clear amber with a white ring. Aroma is sweet, earthy, and fruity, of hops, citrus, pine, malt, and spices. Taste has a lot of preserved orange notes, with hops, malt, and spices. Very sparkly. Lingering orange-hops flavors. Tasty.

Citrus, wheat, and alcohol aroma notes. Cloudy orange with white head. Citrus, caramel, and alcohol flavour notes. Full-bodied, decent balance, mild lingering bitterness.

2008 bottle - Thanks be to Todd... Pours a murky straw brown with little head, aroma is bright, fruity and sweet...flavour is lively, spicy and yeast dominated, lingering dry fruit in the mouth...ABV suprised me, didn’t think it was that strong...my first DH and a nice fall treat...

The body is very lightly hazy, mostly clear, and dark amber in color. A foamy, off-white head settles quickly to a tiny film. Sugary legs leave soapy spots behind to slowly drip back towards the body. The aroma is heavy on caramel malts and candy sugar, hints of wheat, bready yeast, and alcohol soaked white grapes coming to mind. There’s a bit of bubblegum to the nose as well. The flavor is boozy and sugary, overly sweet candy sugar dominating all else. Pungent coriander seed and abrasive alcoholic notes just aren’t working for me. A sticky, cloying, under-carbonated body doesn’t do anything to help this beer’s cause. It’s not often that I truly enjoy a tripel, and this is certainly not one of those rare exceptions. Dark Horse should stick to what they do best, dark beers.