Unibroue Trois Pistoles

Brewed by Unibroue (Sapporo)
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Chambly, Canada

3 year old bottle. Pours a murky purple brune body with an off white head. Spicy dark fruits, hints of plums, dates, and some light fig. Etoh latent fruit warming with cinnamon sticks and Belgian style esters. Dough y creamy with a hint of mint and a Trappist like tartness. Lush fruit skins nectar like plum y notes and a tamed carbonation prickle. Creamy velvet palate with fruit that rolls across the tongue. Mineral like sedimentation suspended with yeast leading to a dough y raisin sweetness. Modest subdued warming with a drying vinous palatable finish. A truly phenomenal Belgian style ale.

Bottle. Dark color, small head. Berries, roasted tones, alcohol, yeast. Lovely and well balanced taste. Berries, spices, chocolate, licorice, a little sourness. Nice smooth finish. A very good beer indeed.

Location: From my buddy Dave who picked it up in Frostburg, MD

Aroma: Light malty, caramel aroma.
Appearance: Dark brownish, black color.
Flavor: Medium bitter taste, lightly sweet.
Palate: Light aftertaste, thick texture.
Overall Impression: Good beer, tastes better when warmed up.

Good sweetness and fruit makes Trois Pistoles stand out from the already strong Unibroue lineup. Dark, nearly opaque burgundy liquid with a creamy off-white head. The aroma is maltier and doughier than most from Unibroue. With notes of raisins, plums, bananas and clove, there are many dark Belgian-style fruit flavors from the yeast and malt. The flavor is mildly sweet for the style but still right in the normal range for a good quad/BSDA. Mouthfeel is full and lively. All of Unibroue’s beers are well-made. Trois Pistoles is a very nice BSDA. I have no real qualms with it, but I’m not sure how well it would stand out against a field of the top examples of the style.

Dark pour. Sour yeasty aroma with lots of dark fruit and a subtle citrus notes and some slight dry sweet fruit, primarily pear. Flavor continues the dark fruit character with a quickly fading carbonated feel. The fruit sweetness begins the flavor that is followed by the more sour yeast character. Finishes smoothly with a nice sweet flavor.

Pours a dark brown. Nice inch of head that disappears almost instantly. Aroma is fruity with maybe a hint of bread? Pretty loose in the mouth. Not a lot of carbonation, medium at the most. Taste is fairly fruity, with fig in there along with some floral backbone. Finishes really clean. I really liked this one a lot.

Pours a very dark brown, a finger and a half of tan foam that dissipated rather quickly. Aroma of some fruit, maybe cherries and dates, and roasty - can also smell the alcohol. Taste is of dark cherries, a hint of chocolate, maybe some fig/date flavors. Nice and complex, very full bodied. The alcohol burns just briefly, then it finishes quite smooth.

(Draught at The Libertine) Pours dark brown with nice 1 finger head and tight bubbles. No lacing to speak of and head dissipates as it warms to nothing eventually. Nose of figs, Belgian yeast, and alcohol. Taste is light chocolate notes, alcohol which doesn’t burn, and over-ripened bananas. A little under-carbonated maybe, and slightly on the thin side.