Kasteelbier Tripel Blonde 11%

Brewed by Brouwerij Van Honsebrouck
Style: Abbey Tripel
Ingelmunster, Belgium

Bottle, Pours light amber, with a lot of bubbles. Very aromatic, sweet smelling grassy aroma, with a fervent yet short-lived head. Flavor is quite pleasant, but a little biting for my taste. Sharp palate, but goes down nicely. Would get this one again.

Draft at The Front Door: Bright gold pour, thick white head, and sticky lacing. Aroma is moist with fruitiness. Lots of citrus and apple. Bits of spice and yeast. Flavor is again fruity. Sort of like a gallon of apple juice was tossed into a barrel... The fruitiness overwhelms the spice and detracts from the overall flavor profile.

Okey so I tried a bottle of Kasteel Bier Blond-Blonde (best before: 2009-01) against a bottle of Kasteel Bier Triple (best before: 2009-08). I know that they are the same beer. However, I will give the them individual scores and then make a weighted score for both of them.

Kasteel bier Blond. Pours a hazy yellow colour with a white head. Aroma is fruity with notes of bitter orange, some maturing notes and a hint of herbs and alcohol. Flavour is sweet and warm (you do feel the alcohol). Bitter orange, somematuring notes (yummy!) and some spices. The finish has just a hint of bitterness again with notes of bitter orange. This is some good stuff!
8/4/8/4/17 = 4.1

Kasteel Bier Triple. Pours a hazy yellow colour with a white head. Aroma is fruity with notes of bitter orange, some yeast and herbs. Flavour is less mature than the Kasteel Bier Blond - it has the same main feature though (but less sweetness and more present taste of alcohol). Bitter orange, orange, yeast and herbs. The finish has just a hint of bitterness again with notes of bitter orange. This one needs more time in the cellar.
7/4/6/3/16 = 3.6

Overall: 8/4/7/3/17 = 3.9

Hazy golden orange with lasting white head and some lace. Lemon candy, yeast, and mild alcohol aroma. SWeet honey apricot lemon with spicy finishing bitternes. Medium-light body and medium carbo. Nice mouthfeel. An enjoyable strong beer. Better than I expected.

I wonder what happened to my rating for this. Maybe I forgot to enter it? Anyways, this is a nice spicy brew with a good flavor from start to finish and a great appearance. An excellent triple.

Pours a light gold with a soft fast falling white head. Sweeter tripel with a fruity apple and citrus note. Floral and estery towards the finish, but the sweetness was the centerpiece of this brew. This beer still had quite a bit of alcohol present, but maybe allowing it to sit would increase the carbonation a bit and soften the booziness.

Pours clear yellow with a fast dissapating head. Sweet grassy, fruity aroma. The taste is the same with a slightly tart bite and alchohol coming through. Got better as it warmed. The yeast taste/aroma was more subdued then other tripels I have had. Not bad though.

0,33 l bottle. Nice amber body, delisicious white and stable head in spite of high alcohol percentage. Sweet, vanilla aroma, strong flavour with coriander and alcohol, creamy mouthfeel, oily and thick texture, vanilla aftertaste. The alcohol warms me up.