Kasteelbier Tripel Blonde 11%

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

75cl bottle. Light gold with a medium white head. Dusty yeast, pear, and honey malt aromas. Lightly sweet malt with light spice and fruit and a dry finish. Low hops. Medium bodied with hight carbonation. Not an especially interesting or unique tripel, but it gets the job done.

750mL bottle purchased at Total Wine in Roseville, CA. Hmmm...bottled on Sept 19 2007. Musty, peppery, spicy aroma with some esters and a fair amount of acetaldehyde. A little ethanolic, too. Not so good. Transparent light golden body with a small, quickly dissipating white head. Spritzy, cidery, with tons of acetaldehyde. A little sweet maltiness in the middle before an ethanolic, cidery burn to finish. Not very good. I am attributing this to the fact that the bottle is old and was likely not stored very well at Total Wine.

Bottle. Pours a hazy yellow with floaters in it. Big white head, lots of lacing on the side of the glass. Aroma of lemon, yeast, citrus, and alcohol. Taste is alcohol and plums. Very heavy texture and body.

Draught at TND: Faint aroma of yeast and lemon. Poured gold/yellow in color with a small, rocky, white head that lasted throughout. Sparkling. Clear. Flavor is slightly bitter. Tastes of yeast and pale malts. Light to medium body. Slightly thin texture. Average carbonation. Yeasty finish. 11%ABV is totally hidden.

Bottled 33cl. Appearance: It pours hazy yellow beer with a small head. Some nice lacework. Aroma: Very dissapointing with hints of cork, apples, glue, overripe banana, manure, alcohol, plastic, chestnuts and metal. Flavor and palate: Superior to the nose. Some hop detectable. Easy drinkable. A lot more tripel characteristics. Full bodied. Low bitterness. A lot of overripe banana showing up again. Nice finish with a lot of coriander showing up suddenly. Overall impression: The flavor is a lot better than the aroma. Interesting. But I didn’t like this beer all that much. Overwhelming alcohol, rather poor and with too much overripe banana reminiscence.

Pours cloudy gold, large head quickly dissipates. Aroma is of light fruits, sugary esters. Mouthfeel is light, fruity, sweet. The finish is like a sweet wine, semi-dry, crisp. Small fruit after taste left on the palate.

Bottle at home. Thanks John. Hazy orange with a large white head, fine lacings. Aroma heavy malty (caramel, citrus,cloves, coriander), light hoppy. Flavor moderate sweet and bitter, dry. Full body, you feel the alcohol even if it’s well hidden.

Gold blond colour. Flavour has a strong feel of oaked white wine. Has a sour hit on the palate with a heavy hint of alcohol on the finish.