Clear golden ale wearing a small white froth. The aroma immediately takes you to the major leagues of the usually uninteresting brewpub tripels. Fully perfumey, abundantly aromatic. Soft and honeyed, sugary, yet floral and grainy enough to feel fresh anyway. Excellent fresh fruit notions all around. Pear and peaches-like while its hops procure excellent mandarine and flower notes. Complex fruity yeast effects, yet feeling authentic. The big-bubbled carbonation has this expanding belgian character. Full-bodied, its sweetness manages to be all about fruits and never about syrup. Daring and successful.

Sampled a 1.5 year old bottle at the brewpub in mid-February: Pours a transparent copper orange with a nicely-lacing frothy white head. Sweet caramel and honey with some bready Belgian yeast dominate the aroma. Body starts with a sweet sticky toffee caramel maltiness and some orange citrus well-balanced with an authentic bready Belgian yeastiness and a touch of black pepper. Seems to have aged well.

On tap at the brewery. Probably Three Needs’ finest offering, the Tripel is properly served in a large wine glass, at close to cellar temp. Nice straw-colored fizzy body, and an aroma that offers faint peaches among the more usual citrusy smells. Light and crisp despite its undoubted high ABV, it goes down easily and is well-balanced between the grapefruity hop bitterness and a thicker, ambrosial malt presence. Very nice going down; not great, but a sign that this brewer has potential--if only they would stick to Belgians and stop their overreaching German and especially American-style experiments. 3/2/02 rerate. Even better 2nd time around; appearance is gorgeous with an impossibly thick persistent head and great amber cloudy color; flavor is immense, buttery-lemony-creamy-caramel-malty -- everything you’d expect in a Trippel. Too bad this is one of the last batch from the former brewer’s stock...