Gouden Carolus Tripel

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

Huge head at pouring. Lasted a LONG time in the glass. Nice golden color. Yeasty/wheaty flavor. Slight alcohol aftertaste. Cloudy consistancy.

Beverage Warehouse, Roswell, Ga - 750 ml corked bottle. Dark golden, slightly murky with a wispy thin, lacy head, looks like champagne. Clean, fresh aroma with hints of lemon, butterscotch and mown grass. interesting and slightly complex flavor. Pick up some fruitiness, akin to the flavor of pears. Some estery notes, a bit of butter and some white wine. Just the right amount of spritziness, does not feel like I am drinking champagne, my complaint about some tripels. Overall, very good.

Hazy yellow, with a large white head. Aroma of bread, honey and fruit. Flavor is mostly sweet with some bitternes. Finish is mildly dry. Good Triple.

Mostly clear golden with a foamy head and some lace. Nose of bread and alcohol. A bit thin bodied for the style and with too much carbonation. Notes of earth and fruit (peach?). slightly piney hop presence in the finish. Not the best tripel but a damn good one.

Pours yellow/gold, with a fairly large, white head. Malt, yeast and earth aromas, similar to Duvel. Flavor is malt, yeast, and some honey. It just seems to be missing something that would put it into the upper ranks. Alcohol is very well hidden. If I hadn’t known it was 9%, I would have guessed something like 6% or 7%.

Pours with a clear, rich, concentrated gold color and is topped by an easily three-finger thick, frothy, light tan colored head that leaves some lacing on the sides of the glass. The aroma is quite herbal; perhaps a mix of fermentation character, hops and even a touch of grassy malt. Notes of vanilla peak through a base of dry weeds (which give this some sharp biting notes), . There is a nice aromatic note of both sweet and toasty malt here that has vague nuances of butterscotch, a just lightly malty caramel note, some dry soda cracker notes, and the aforementioned grassy grain character. There is a touch of higher alcohols in the nose, which only seem to accentuate that sharp, sort of weed-like herbal note that seems to be the most dominant note.

Sharp up front with a herbal astringent note, but the beer immediately softens up a bit with a sweet malt character. Notes of honey are certainly in evidence and mix quite well with the herbal notes; the combination makes me think of some sort of greenish wild flower nectar. This beer has a way of lightly sticking to the palate, letting one no that this is not a beer to take lightly, though it certainly drinks a bit lighter than its alcohol content might suggest. Back to that sharpness, it seems to be a combination of higher alcohols and some phenolic notes, neither of which are out of control and in fact add a touch of balance to the sweetness that might otherwise be dominating. Speaking of phenolics there is a definite note of clove here, which tends to accentuate the sweet malt. There are also some noticeable fruit notes here, predominantly pear, green apple, and tart plum.

This is an interesting beer; sweet yet astringently dry at times; palate sticking, yet light enough to be quaffable. There is definitely enough sharp rough edges here to balance the sweet malt and fruit notes. At times this beer is incredibly enjoyable, but at other times there is something (that I can’t quite put my finger on) that seems a bit off kilter. It is not enough to negate my enjoyments, but it certainly makes me ponder, and perhaps that is a good thing anyway. In the end not being able to fully grasp this beer makes it that much more intriguing.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

Sweet, caramel malt aroma. Spicy, mild hops. Golden body with fizzy white head that recedes to fine cover. Sweet malt, bitter orange, yeast, light spicy hops on the tongue. Smooth, easy to drink, effervescent. Very enjoyable. Bottle (sampled at Mondial 2004).

A bit cloyingly sweet at first but dries out a little as the glass empties. Malty, with big coriander and orange peel flavours. Alcohol shows itself but doesn’t overpower. Nice.