La Trappe Tripel

Sweet malt hop aroma with flowers. Murky amber red colour with fair head and lacing. Sweet malt hop bitter flavour. Fizzy palate.

750ml bottle. Pours a hazy golden, with a fine head. Sweet, yeasty nose. Not as complex as some of the top-echelon Trippels, but a very nice effort nonetheless.

A Mes rate: 33cl bottle from some pub in Crouch End.
Not quite as good as the quad but easily better than the other two offerings from this brewery. Alcoholic aroma with hints of cream and red fruit. Similar notes in the flavour too. Something very strawberries and cream about it which I find rather enjoyable. Finish is brief with a tiny amount of hoppage which quickly turns bitter then gives a good sized kick of alcohol right at the death. Not bad.

Bottled (BB 09/2006)
Clear red-amber color, small white head. Aroma has sweet fruits (lychee, strawberry) and a bit of rye. Sticky, crisp mouthfeel, alcohol in the start. Toffee malty, some hops in the finish. Dissapointing. Not very tripel-like. I wonder if I got a bad bottle, but when reading comments like Oakes’s, maybe not.

pours hazy with decent head. smells like other trappists but the taste is not as complex. bitter hoppy, spicy, and reminants of fruit, but not too demanding.

Another undemanding and unbalanced La Trappe offering akin to their Blonde. It may be the yeast involved, the Dutch influence or the brewery itself, but these beers lie a mile down the list when compared with other Trappist beers. Poured into a chalice quite cool; an absolute twin to the Blonde as far as looks with the exception of this ones missing head. Pale orangey copper, quite hazy with an incomplete head forming even after a slow pour. It did manage a fine lacing, though. Spicy, rather pungent and noticeably alcoholic, toffee, fairy floss and tangerine nose. Very sweet inside the mouth; a little light in body and biting in carbonation at first only to soften late into drinking. Overtones of burnt wood, oak chips, pine nuts and a little citrus attempt a balance with the overly sweet caramel and toffee mix on the tongue with a stand-alone note of metallic, zingy hops in the back which finishes it off quite short. Highly alcoholic with a warming vodka-like swallow and a little heat in the mouth. Slowly comes together near warm, but it lacks balance and flavour integration to be anything other than a fizzy alcohol hit. Obviously needs a few years in the cellar to mellow, so this is another for a re-rate. (30cL, BBE12/07, Int’l Beer Shop, W. Leederville)

Dark amber with yeast swirls and small, tan head. Dark for a triple. Rich, malty and yeasty aroma with pungent fruits and a bit of roastiness, also. Same flavor with a touch of hops and alcohol in the finish. Full, balanced body. Dry, roasty, yeasty aftertaste. Solid brew, but nothing to get excited about.

Probablement ma préférédes des quatre de La Trappe (embalage cadeau). Riche, épicé, fruité, bonne. Et ça ne veint pas de la Belgique.