Triumph Nuit De Folie

Brewed by Triumph Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Princeton, New Jersey USA

In short: An extra-sweet fruit salad in a bottle. Not my thing.
How: Post-Mondial 2008 tasting session. Hand-bottles brought to Montreal by Dickinsonbeer. Paul rules!
The look: Clear ruby body topped by a very small off-white ring of foam
In long: Taste is sweet, very sweet, too sweet. An overall impression of a sweetened fruit salad with a few sweet maraschino cherries added. Alcohol is very well hidden behind the wall of sweetness. To me this was a sweet digestive beer-like drink. They called that “Crazy Night”. If all my Crazy Nights were that sweet I’d be getting a lot of sex.

[1469-20080531] 750mL bottle. Sweet boozy caramel malt aroma. Hazy, dark brown rich red body with a quick head. Sugary caramel roasted sweet roasty malt flavour. Medium-full body. Interesting.
(Post-Mondial Tasting)

(growler, courtesy of ?) Minimal tan head atop clear dark copper body. Aroma is moderately sweet, caramel, dark fruit, some candi sugar. Taste is sweet, candi sugar, dark fruit, some melon, alcohol. Sticky full body, low carbonation.

Sampled from a growler. Dark cola brown body under a small tan head. Nose is crunchy, oat/bran cereal grains and strangely sour/infected maple syrup. Ugly flavor of moldy maple and cracklin’ oat bran (and wet bread). Slight hotness in the finish. I tried to like it but it’s a bit of a mess.

Objectively speaking: A big sweet Belgian with the malt profile and body of a doppelbock. Brought to the Mondial tasting by a generous Paul.
I like: 10% alcohol is well integrated. Varied fruity range, though perhaps not all complementary.
I dislike: Exagerated Munich malt proportion (or impression) do give a nut skin taste that works against the sweetness and leaves a lingering, dull metallic/vegetal (bean) impression. Rather small-bubbled carbonation does not carry up its Belgian inspiration.

2008-05-31. Nice brown body catches the light rather nicely, small off white head. (3+) Aroma of sugars, modest alcohol, brief brown sugar, as it warms weird fruit black cherry emerges that is variably rather pleasant and not so pleasant. Flavour is quite sweet with more of the odd cherry notes which quickly takes over and becomes a bit unpleasant. Smooth average plus palate. (3+). Starts off nicely but leaves a rather rough lasting impression. Hand bottle shared by Dickinsonbeer, Post-Mondial Tasting, Montreal

Draft. Pours burnt sienna with a beige head. Aroma is fruity with caramel, raisin, clove and banana. Medium/full body. Flavor is raisin, plum, banana and spice. Very nice, very drinkable, easily the best beer I had in Philly.

My Bottom Line:
Black cherry fruitiness branches out into raisins and plantanes as caramel sweetness braids the fruit basket into a harmonious flavor profile. This Belgian-style Strong Ale might not necessarily recall the style/family it is aiming for, but that doesn’t mean this is not a finely crafted sipper.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A veil of foam covers the mahogany gown.
-In the nose, the bold fruitiness recalls that which is often found in Flemish Sours, but there is no sourness to be found here at all.
-This might be too sweet and one-directional for some, but I found it a mighty good late evening drink.
-Alcohol is marvelously hidden.

Hand-bottled from growler.