Middle Ages Tripel Crown

Brewed by Middle Ages Brewing
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Syracuse, New York USA

12 oz bottle courtesy of luiss, thanks!! Pours a very cloudy orange. Yeasty smell, with bananas. Taste very similar to the smell, a bit tart. Alcohol is more present in the smell than the taste. This isn’t like other belgian strongs i’ve had. But interesting, and pretty good.

Bottle. Fancy looking gold foil around the top turns out to be a cupcake wrapper pressed around the neck of the bottle. Pours slightly hazy orange/amber with very little head. Initial skunky character reminiscent of Schmidts, which turned into a malty aroma with some red apple peel notes and an off-putting margerine odor at the end. Bittersweet biscuity malt flavor with some fruitiness and a mildly bitter finish of pithy citrus peel and herbal notes. Musty aftertaste. Medium to full bodied, mild carbonation. I take it this is another "mad scientist" brewing experiment- a British-Belgian hybrid. Can’t say I like the overall results, though nice try I guess.

A loser beer, yet one more to unimpress me with MA brewing. Pour was amber-oragne with a weak initial head, weak retention, absolutely poor lacing for a tripel. The aroma was caramel, oranges, orange rinds, strong liquor (brandy / rum combo?), nothing soft or yeasty underneath. The flavor followed suit, strong oranges, hot alcohol, sweet, yet finishing with an orange rind bitterness at the same time. A poor concoction.

12-oz. Thanks, Luiss! Pours a deep cloudy copper with a thin white head that’s gone in no time. Huge orange and candi sugar nose. Assertive attack; thick body, low carb, forward flavors. More orange and sugar on the nose. Not much in the finish. Fairly well made but not super interesting.

Deep golden beer, cloudy haze and a thick creamy white head. Aroma is quite lovely showing lots of Maris Otter malt character, honeyish sweetness and lots of peach/apple/pear fruitiness with a bit of tapioca sweetness as well. Aroma shows just a kiss of herbal hoppiness. Fairly assertive bitterness, moderate body, but also some fusely alcohols that I normally associate with malt liquors. Peach/apple flavour and a lingering bitter finish. More pale barleywine than anything else it claims to be.

Undeniably strange, in nose and taste. British tripel? Belgian IPA? Imperial Pilsner? Sometimes these experiments work, and sometimes they don’t. I bput this in the interesting-once-is-enough category. Appearance is rich amber and, with a high enough pour, generates a good sized head that vanishes with moderate lacing. Strange nose ... for want of a better description of vegetable and alcohol and fruit, I’ll second the previous reviewer on Tequila. Taste of alcohol, sugar, and some spice, with a long nasty finish.

Bottle. Lightly opaque, medium amber in color with a small and fast-fading white head which leaves no lacing. Aroma is oddly like the tequila I had last night. Modest amounts of fruit, some caramel. Medium bodied at best, lower carbonation level, somewhat still in the mouth. Moderate bits of alcohol, flavors reminding me again of tequila. While the experimental value is there trying to combine British and Belgian styles, this beer fails to pull through.

Courtesy of some fine soul who borrowed my cooler at RBSG 06. Golden with a reddish core; slight head. Sweet, cherry syrup/cough drop, sugary nose. Alcohol makes a strong showing. Cherries, cola, malt core, with nicely-balanced bitterness. Lots of candy sugar. Medium, alcoholic finish ends with some minerals and cola.