Gouden Carolus Tripel

Brewed by Brouwerij Het Anker
Style: Abbey Tripel
Mechelen, Belgium

330 ml bottle. Thick, deep golden hazy color, smallishoff-white head. Big choco-caramel-banana aroma with loads of spiciness (cinnamon, white peppe); lovely vanilla late in the nose. Gorgeous! Really spicy on the tongue, as pointed out in the last review...luscious candied fruits, light alcohol, and a small herbal component. Medium to high carbonation, medium acidity, impressively balanced between the sugar and late acidic sourness. Another glorious concoction from the folks at Het Anker, not quite up to the d’Or or Kaiser, but still wonderful and necessary.

Golden straw. Voluminous white head smatters intricate lacework all over the glass. Lovely aromas of pineapple, pear, honeydew, lime peels, airy phenols, peppery hops, and candy sugar intermingle with hints of licorice, bubblegum, and sweet vanilla-cake maltiness. Quite vibrant and complex. Firm effervescence tickles the palate. Succulent yet dry with an explosion of fresh oranges and pineapple combined with a savory tandem of herbal and floral hops. Malts are clean and pillowy, and the combination of puttylike yeast and tropical fruit esters adds to the soft feel and uplifting nature despite the high alcohol. Hops continue to contribute their zesty sparkle while evoking thoughts of aniseed and lime peels as they tease the tongue with a pleasantly tight and refined bitterness. Rich wafery malts bolster the body’s core with a well-textured softness which echoes the faint candy sugar remnants. Zingy alcohol complements the peppery hops and neutralizes some of the sweetness before warming the gullet. Bright tangerine is sandwiched between the zippy dryness and sugary malts at the finish, before a seamless transition to feisty lingering snippets of coriander, snappy phenols, and herbal hops. This has always been a solid beer, but I especially like this particular bottling with all its cohesiveness and interesting yeast- and high-fermentation-derived nuance.

Bottle picked up in Belgium. Pours gold, white head. Spicy/peppery aroma. Interestingly it’s like a high gravity witbier, it shares similar spiceyness, and is without the dry hoppinness you find in some triples

Malty, raisinny aroma. Sweet, malty, raisinny, peppery taste. Long peppery bitter finish. From the bottle it has a flowery, honeyish aroma. Tap: unfiltered. Cafe Morshuis Albergen. Lemonaroma, initial lemon and vanilla flavor. After that loads of hops. Strong long lasting hoppy aftertaste. The 9% ABV is not noticed at all. Pity the beer was served too cold. Bottle, 3 years old: Vinous aroma with remaining flowery hops and orange. Fusel alcohols in the flavor, that is becoming like old brandy. Vinous, notes of sherry. Alcoholic, but still satisfyingly balanced. Nice!

750 ml bottle, pours cloudy golden. with a thick rocky head. aroma is spice and malt. taste is malt. fruit, apricot, clove,and spice. a pretty good beer.

I’m not a fan of strong belguim’s but this is pretty good. hazy golden color - pleasant aroma and 9% - YEAH!! good brew.

Clear golden color, moderate white foamy head. Sweet malty and yeasty aroma--presence of spices (clove, coriander), flowers, candy sugar, and perhaps a hint of pineapple and banana. Flavors are a nice balance of sweet malts, spices, and hops. The bitterness of this beer does not allow the sweetness to run rampant. This is a nice, well-balanced tripel. The mouthfeel is soft and a bit sticky, but is dried up nicely by the astringency of the hops. Certainly worth drinking again, and definitely lived up to my expectations. I haven’t yet had a "bad", (or even "average") Gouden Carolus beer. Can’t wait to have more of these...

Bottle shared by aubreya at Milltown in honor of Ethan’s 21st bday. Congrats, bro! I didn’t take any notes on this one, but it was very nice indeed. Solid tripel with alcohol well hidden. I kind of wish I would have taken notes. Very enjoyable.