La Trappe Tripel

Bottled: Malty, sweet and alcoholic aroma. Notes of raisins and Dark orange to reddish color. Stiff, frothy head. Taste is sweet with notes of rum-plums, raisins, oak barrel and a alcohol sharpness. Light bitter finish. Pleasant but unspectacular.

Nicely done belgian ale. Fruity, a bit sweet, and well rounded. Unspectacular, but solid.

Bottle. Amber beer with an off-white head. Big phenolic, banana, clove aroma. Malty, yeasty, earthy, spicy, banana flavor. Medium body. LIngering yeast. Good complexity.

The mushroom cork on this beast was a pain to remove, it broke off as I was trying to remove it and I had to push the half inch nub down into the beer to get anything into my glass. A dark Tripel, this beer pours with a fairly clear, reddish hue and is topped by a frothy, barely half-finger thick, amber tinged tan head. The aroma is a mix of malt and fruit: notes of raisins and apples round out the fruit component, while caramelized malt sugars and lightly browned bread crust are on the malt side. The aroma is fairly dull though, I was expecting a bit more character here.

The taste is lightly sweet, and pretty light on the palate as well. It is not very heavy at all, especially for a brew of this strength. The flavors are a bit dull; notes of apple cider, raisins and some flabby malt are noticeable. This is probably showing some age as it seems to have picked up the beginnings of wet cardboard. Some spicy notes round out the finish with notes of clove, ginger and perhaps something like allspice giving this a complexity boost. Just not a very great beer; I expected quite a bit more complexity here, even with the light notes of age.

Purchased: Park Lane Liquors, Lancaster CA

Golden cloudy poor, nice thick head. Plenty of carbonation. Slight yeast aroma. Somewhat soapy, but not too strong. Easy to drink. Nice fresh bread like taste. Has more of a Belgian feel to it than a Dutch feel. Very enjoyable. Pleasant fruity, fresh ale taste. Despite the 8% alc content, the level is not pronounced in the flavor.

Bottle. 33cl. This is a classic tripel, alle the way, but not the same class as Tripel Karmeliet, but never the less a good one.

Bottle, 8%. Weak apple aroma. Clear copper colour, nice white head. The flavour has a bit of caramel and some pepper, unfortunately also a hint of veg.

I used to prefer this to the quad, although the more I drink it the more unbalanced it can sometimes be. Not the star of trappist ales--slightly overrated, but still pretty decent.