Great Divide Tripel

Brewed by Great Divide Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Tripel
Denver, Colorado USA

Date: November 15, 2009
Mode: Bottle
Source: Hop City, Atlanta
Appearance: hazy gold, frothy white head, sudsy lace
Aroma: sweet spicy aroma, touch of candy sweetness, lots of spicyness
Body: big body
Flavor: sweet malt flavor, nice spicyness, light balancing bitterness with the spicyness
Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 12/20
Rating: 3.1/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: ** /4

Pours clear dark golden color with white head. Aromas of Belgian yeast and spices. Flavor is moderately sweet with spices and bread dough. Medium body with lively carbonation.

Bottle. Pours a hazy pale orange color. Flavor is bready malts, yeast profile is slightly sour. Finish is slightly citric and bitter. Light bodied, alcohol is well hidden. Decent enough but not amazing for a tripel. Overall OK, it’s hard to duplicate trappist made Belgian beers.

Pours a hazy lemon yellow with thick white head. Aroma is very grassy with yeast coming through, bread aromas and sugars. Flavor is largely candi sugar and sweet bread flavor. Body is creamy with quite a bit of carbonation. It’s good but nothing particularly special about it.

Bottle … Hazy yellow ale with a small, tight, white head. Excellent retention. The bouquet is of juicy apricot, banana and clove. Full-bodied with lively carbonation. Fruity and sweet, but decently balanced by moderate acidity and mild bitterness. Bittersweet, lightly acidic, minerally finish.

Has a rich, wheaty, yeasty aroma that is quite strong. Appearance is a rather uninspiring clear yellow with an average and not too persistent head. Flavor, fortunately, more than makes up for the looks - it is strong, mouth-filling, yeasty, slightly fruity, slightly sweet, quite refreshing, but with a hint of hop bitterness and a nice, ragged bite. Texture is fizzy, lively and ragged, fairly dancing on the tongue and down the pipes. Good one!

Bottle.
Pours a decent yellow with a lively body but density is lacking. Nice, thick head of white sits atop and stays for awhile, leaving a slowly appearing latticework of lacing around the glass. Aroma is raisin bread and vegetable, with a bit of barnyard lemon in the background. Flavor is striking yeasty bread and butter, with bits of grape and raisin syrup. Light finish of prune and coriander. Average mouthfeel. Good beer, but it doesn’t stand out.

Pours a slightly hazy orange golden with a thin, wispy-lacing white head. Aroma of sweet light caramel malt with a touch of orange citrus and Belgian yeasty esters. Starts with decent fullness and some floral grassy hop bitterness along with a slightly syrupy pale maltiness before a drier, slightly more bitter semi-dry finish. Pretty true to style, but could use more complexity.