Southern Tier Tripel

Brewed by Southern Tier Brewing Company
Style: Abbey Tripel
Lakewood, New York USA

22 oz bottle. Pours out a orange yellowish color with no head at all. Smell contains some orange and corriander smell. Perhaps a little lemon on the nose as well. Taste is sweet and fairly boozy with a nice little sweet flavor. Not really a good example of the style, but it actually does good for whatever it could be called. Perhaps this is a tad better than its 3.2 rating. Bottle from my dad.

22 ounce bottle from Beers of the World in Rochester, NY (October 2006) consumed a little below cellar temperature from a Duvel glass. Murky, dull amber orange that shows light yeast flocculation under light, with a moderate head that decays quickly to a lasting 1-finger mass of bubbling whiteness, leaving chunky lacing behind....strongly herbal, dry, lightly farmy aroma, dry grasses and a touch of manure, hints of rosemary and coriander and orangepeel; a bit dusty but fairly potent.....sweet, moderately alcoholic body offers a strange medicinal/iodine touch that is a bit offputting at first but eventually works its way decently into the lightly sweet, rather earthy-chalky body....orange zest apparent, the citric acidity and finishing chalkiness combine for a rather tough ending.....carbonation is strong and a bit gassy; body is a bit syrupy and thick....on the whole, I like this more than I though I would going in, it’s a fairly drinkable, moderately powerful and deep though not terribly complex essay at the style; a bit brutish and forceful and not terribly stylish, but for whatever reason that’s working for me tonight, even in a style that’s supposed to have a bit more elegance.

22 oz bottle split two ways. Clear golden/light amber in color, looks like it was filtered. Aroma is light spice, malts, sugar. Taste is light spice notes, with belgian malts and sugar. A very drinkable beer, but not what I consider an authentic tripel at all.

Brown bottle, 355 ml, trip to Beers of the world with Dum, Ian and Lubière on August 26 2006; eye: golden, nice white head, good effervescence, clear, lacing; nose: malt, hops, grapefruit, citrus, caramel; mouth: malt, a somewhat stressing bitterness, hint of hops, grapefruit, caramel, finale in malt with a hint of caramel and grapefruit, mildly sweet and bitter, medium body, avergage carbonation; overall: good FRANÇAIS Bouteille brune, 355 ml, voyage à Beers of the world avec Dum, Ian et Lubière le 26 août 2006; oeil : dorée, belle mousse blanche, bonne effervescence, claire; nez : malt, houblon, pamplemousse, citron, caramel; bouche : malt, amertume un peu agressante, pointe de houblon, pamplemousse, caramel, finale en malt avec une pointe de caramel et de pamplemousse, moyennement sucrée et amère, corps moyen, carbonatation moyenne; en résumé : bonne

I went into this one with very low expectations, maybe it is because of that I was pleasantly surprised by this tripel. Pours hazy orange with a fizzy off-white head that diminishes quickly. The aroma is thick rich pale malt, sweetness, light spice and light plastic stale notes (the stale traits were a minor part and not really enough to be offensive). Medium / thick body that is pretty smooth with a moderate amount of sharp carbonation. The flavor starts out with nectar fruits, heavy cloying malt that is marginally sweet, some earthy yeast and traces of spice. The finish gets a bit sour and astringent, but that leaves quick and the thick malt returns. Not bad by any means, but also not up to the standards of the style.

Nov. 10th ’06 Brought to the great camping weekend by biznizness. Not totally impressed with this american tripel attempt but it did well enough at the time.

nice bold golden pour, quickly evaporating soapy head. quickly bubbling carbonation to start but settles very quickly. No activity? Ok something’s wrong. Hoppy wet aroma and a bitter malty taste. Southern Tier needs to go back to the drawing board with this one and make it more lively. When I think of the achels and chimays and La Fin Du Mondes out there, I know this doesn’t hold up very well. Still, a bit better than the average beer to be certain.

I dont know what it is but I just dont like the smell of tripels...just about every one I have had has the same smell to it, and I just plain old dont like it. But this one is that same smell I dont like mixed with some pretty ethanol/fussel alcohol smells as erway said in his rating of this beer. The taste is pretty far from good as well. Almost perfume hairspray alcohol taste, with gross oily slick filmy palate. I love most stuff this brewery produces from their ipa to their double ipa and their coffee stout, but this was bad.