Ommegang Three Philosophers

Brewed by Brewery Ommegang (Moortgat)
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Cooperstown, New York USA

I’m happy to have this one as my 200th rating since it’s one of the beers that opened my eyes to great beer. 2008 vintage. 22 oz. bottle from Keller’s IGA, shared. Pours a cloudy dark brown with a fairly small off-white head that didn’t leave much behind or last long. Aroma is alcohol, cherry, caramel, roast malt, and dried fruit. Alcohol leads the flavor, also cherry, roast malt, dried fruit, caramel sweetness. Complex and really satisfying and fun to drink. Could use a little more balance since the alcohol sticks out a lot, and I might take the advice of MmmcKay and let it age a little longer to make it two full years next time. Excellent overall.

dark brown pour wiht a nice light colored but lacy head. beautiful belgian maltiness mixed with a little hint of cherry that works oh so well together. great mouthfeel. nothing too overpowering in the alcohol department....jsut a well balanced delicious twist on a belgian.

Bomber. Big tan head, dark brown to orange non transparent appearance. Cherry alcohol dominate the aroma, with faint malty sweetness. Bursting alcoholic floral taste, balanced with a long finish that complements the alcohol nicely.

Upon surfing the local liquor store isles for a new beer, a friend of mine stumbled across Three Philosophers. With such a fantastic name and exquisite bottling, I had to get it. I drank this beer at only slightly below room temperature due to time restrictions. First to note is its fine aroma, with a sweet and fruity smell. Its taste was strong and satisfying - like nothing I have ever had before. As my first lambic, I was blind going in. I was very much impressed by the powerful flavor and cherry after taste.

Aroma of fruits, big, slightly roasty malt, caramel, cherries especially. Rather rich malty flavor with chocolate, cherry and dark fruits. Rich and tasty though not up there with the classic Belgian abts. Very nice anyhow.

Sampled at DØE Beerfestival 2009, Valby. Pours a dark ambercolored beer with an offwhite head. The aroma is sweetness, dried fruit and caramel. The flavor has a lot of sweetness. The palate is sweet with some dryness. Overall a good beer.

Vertical tasting of the 2007, 2008, and 2009 batches or vintages. As it turns out the tasting went exactly as we would have expected. Here’s some brief notes on each vintage. 2009 - Reddish in color. Hot, sweet, sharp fruit flavors, lacks balance. Most fruit of all three that we tried. Least favorite. 2008 - Stuck right in the middle of the two vintages. Color fading as well as the fruit. Less sharp than 2009. Better in quality but not by much. 2007 - Hands down the best of the three years that we tried. The red color has almost completely faded. Brown now in color. Malty lush nose. Fruit flavors are now faded to the point where they are very well integrated. Conclusion - 2 years seems to be a nice sweet spot for aging this beer. The 2009 had just been released when we did our tasting. It would have been interesting to have a bottle of 2006. However, I think a 2006 would have tasted old by now.

Ommegang should not sell this in 750s. The color was ruddy brown with a little bit of carbonation and a decent off-white head that held for a bit. The flavor was bud light with a smidgen of cherry. Where is the kriek with which this was supposedly blended? I found this pretty disappointing and was kicking myself that I had such a big bottle of it.