Left Hand St. Vrain Tripel

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: Abbey Tripel
Longmont, Colorado USA

Like lemon sherbert, all yeast and wheat. Yucky palate- really warms your mouth out. Bottle from a tasting at the house of chris Montelius

Pale yellow. Nose is clove, belgian yeast, lemon. Flavor is clean lemon, cloves, cinnamon, yeastiness. Not a bad trippel.

Gold pour, small head. Fruity and yeasty aroma. Some light banana and bread notes. Flavor is simple but very nice. Yeasty, fruit, a bit of alcohol on the finish. Pretty good.

22oz bomber. Pours a brilliant gold with a surprising lack of head. The aroma is bready with rich malts and some pilsner malt notes. There are also some fruity esters (banana) and a slight note of alcohol. The flavor follows the aroma - bready, almost doughy, malts with soft fruitiness and a light spiciness. Midpalate has a pleasant balancing bitterness with a dry but malty finish. The finish has some yeasty and spicy notes and also some ethanol. Mouthfeel is surprisingly (given the no-head pour) and pleasantly brisk and brightly carbonated. Medium body. Overall, a pleasant tripel.

On tap at FR, clear golden color that could be mistaken for a Budweiser, the head was sparse and white. The smell was a very light spiciness. The taste was bland at first and then a little alcohol and some spice. This was the blandest Belgian beer I have ever had. This one was a letdown but I was glad I had it on tap instead of forking over the 11$ for a 750ml. Serving type: on-tap Reviewed on: 07-23-2007 16:30:47

Draft Sample @ 1702, Tucson AZ; August 2009
This beer arrives from the tap with a n apparent brisk carbonation yet no head to speak of. The beer is a light gold color and is stunningly brilliantly clear; the lack of carbonation and the color make it look like cider. The beer somehow smells dry with some light fruitiness up front, an earthy / spicy note (coriander’ish) and some dry pear aromas. AS it warms up some tart green apple notes, a touch of pickled ginger, ample clove notes and estery higher alcohols become more noticeable.

The beer tastes sweeter than the aroma suggested, though it is certainly not overly sweet; the sweetness is certainly accentuated by notes of higher alcohols and a clove like spiciness in the finish. There is lots of earthy spiciness to this brew that makes me think it was fermented with a Chimay derived strain of yeast; this always reminds me of dirty coriander and not in a good way. The beer is actually quite dry (the sweetness is more of an accent of the esters than of actual malt sweetness, but there are still some apparent fruit notes to this beer; lightly tart, floral pear notes and some green apple towards the finish are noticeable. A light, but prickly carbonation accentuates the spicy notes found in this beer; peppery notes mix with the phenolics and the turpene like notes really linger on the tongue, even numbing it a bit. Maybe a hint of orange zest becomes noticeable as this beer warms up. This has very little malt character to it, even for a Tripel; it is so clean it almost seems more like a Duvel inspired beer (though the dirty Chimay yeast makes this a definite deviation). This is light bodied and highly quaffable, which I do usually prefer in my Belgian inspired beers.

This beer is not bad, but it is fairly forgettable.

On tap at the brewery in Longmont on 7/16/09. Pours a nice golden with virtually nonexistent head. Banana aroma and not much going on with the flavor except some unpleasant funk and a long finish. Also a bit too carbonated.

22oz bottle of the 2009 bottling. Color is a hazy light gold with very low carbonation and almost no head. Aroma is faint giving just a little sweet yeast scent with a hint of spice in the back. Taste is fruity, sweet and spicy. Starting with a medium body it goes down smooth with a flat feel. Finish comes in with a fruity yeast flavor that has a little banana then some orange next some hops show giving a nice spicy taste. After taste is a little bland with just a bit of the banana and spice hang on a second with a touch of the alcohol coming out. I was expecting a lot more from this brew, the rest of the brews in there Big Mo series are big and bold. The big down fall to this one is the carbonation, I think the flavors would stand out better if it had more carbonation.