Fish Tale Monkfish Triple (2004-)

Brewed by Fish Brewing Company/Leavenworth Beers
Style: Abbey Tripel
Olympia, Washington USA

Cloudy orange, modest head. Sweet caramel aroma. Sweet caramel flavour, some woody/whiskey element as well. Alcohol is quite harsh and poorly integrated. Very thin in the mouth despite the alcohol content. Not one I will come back to.

Cloudy golden color. Thick like a triple but lacking a lot of the citrusy tones that are common. More malty but still good. A little yeast and spice in the aroma. Slightly hint of orange and nice full bodied flavor. A little on the sweet side of things as well. Thanks after4ever for this one.

(2006) Pleasant aroma if not somewhat subdued. Yeasty, a tad spicy. Beautiful cloudy orange, thin head. Very smooth and refined. Alcohol is well hidden. One of those under the radar beers. Doesn’t knock you out about how great it is, but just gets better and better the more you drink it. Thumbs up.

From a fresh bottle.

Pours a hazy amber brown with a relatively small head.

The aroma is relatively mild and dominated by orange peel hops with a bit of pepper and just the faintest hint of yeast.

The flavor comes through as a surprising hybrid between a mellow IIPA (or a hopped-up West Coast Barleywine) IPA and a Belgian tripel --- and even more surprisingly, I really like it. Lots of citrus hops, some candied orange peel, very restained yeast flavors for the style, a late hint of grapefruit-driven alcohol. The mouthfeel is deeply quaffable, sparkling on the tongue and extremely tasty.

I just clicked with this bottle like nobody’s business. Sure, this one is not true to any particular style, -- but who cares? I’ll give it a huge shout for reminding me just how much I love beer (and just why I love it so.)

2006 bottle sampled May ’08 Another failed aging experiment. The hops are gone, cardboard in their place. Drinkable but not special. This is about a 3.3 today, and it makes me wonder about whether I’d be anywhere near the 4.3 above if I had it again fresh.

Bomber. Pours cloudy golden amber with a bit of diminishing white head. Candi sugar and yeast on the nose, neither of which show up in the flavor. Nice big bubbly mouthfeel. Good tangy sweet malt flavor, some toffee and nuts. The hops are what make this stand out; there’s a beautiful lingering bitter finish that keeps the sweets at bay (my dad surprised me by volunteering that it was "too sweet" for him--I guess Belgian suspicions run in the family. It’s well-balanced in my book.). This is a great gesture at brewing a Belgian, but it’s very Americanized.

On tap at Brouwers. Golden with small head. Slightly yeasty aroma and taste. A little hoppy and the alcohol is hidden pretty well. Doesn’t come off like a triple to me...but decent enough.

Bottle shared by hairofthedog! Thanks Tommy! Pours a medium cloudy golden color with a tiny head and no lacing. Aroma is sweet and slightly malty with barrel aged like hints. Flavor is very similar to a barleywine. Smooth and rich with a slightly warm aftertaste, not like a tripel at all which means that I enjoyed this beer! Thanks again Tommy!

The aroma had citrus, grapefruits, light fermented fruit, soury and malty. The beer poured a brownish orange color w/ golden highlights; thin head and lacing. The flavor had light fermented fruit, not very sour, more like a barleywine, caramel, and malty. The mouthfeel was medium bodied, and creamy.