Hey everyone! I have decided that in addition to the weekly Friday Craft Brew Series, I want to start sharing individual beer reviews throughout the week. Yes, you're right, this may just be an excuse for me to drink more beer throughout the week! The good thing is you all will get more beer to read about each week now!
So without further ado...
You may remember the name of this brewery from last weeks Friday Craft Brew Series where I reviewed their America Wild Ale, La Seul X. That was one of the best beers I have had recently so I was really excited to try a beer style from them that is a little more mainstream. I decided upon Tripel an Abbey Ale coming in at 8.7%.
The name is real deceiving here as I was expecting a Tripel Ale, and that it is not. I guess I need to read labels a little better.
The beer upon pouring has no head at all, even when I tried to force some. It was a very dark amber color, almost brown, and totally opaque. Again, since I was expecting a Tripel this appearance was very unexpected.
There was almost no smell to the beer at all, at least nothing really decipherable, which was really strange. The most I got was a tiny yeast smell, but it disappeared almost immediately. The lack of aroma made me a little nervous.
The first taste tells me this is 100% an Ale, very close to an Amber Ale, and nothing like a Tripel. The beer has a toasty flavor mixed with malts. The more I drink it the more I get strange underlying flavors. There is a slight sweetness that you would get from a Tripel that disappears just as fast as you can recognize it. Perhaps that is where the name comes from. Every sip I take seems to result in a more toasted flavor. It's building into a brown ale flavor almost.
The flavor that lasts is almost like a roasted nut. It lingers in your mouth but only for a medium amount of time. It's not really the best flavor to have stick around, especially for someone that isn't the biggest fan of roasted flavors.
This is a strange beer. Not at all what I was expecting, and I am not sure I really enjoyed it. It's almost like the beer is confused on what style it wants to be. Is it an Amber Ale, a Brown Ale, a Tripel? I don't really know even after finishing two glasses.
Overall this isn't a beer I would recommend. It has it's good points, but overall I just don't think the flavors come together as well as I would like. Like always though, it's a beer, so if someone handed it to me I would happily drink it; I'm just not going out and buying it myself.
Thanks for reading everyone! Stay tuned for more individual beer reviews to come, I'll try and get one more up in the coming days before the weekly Friday Craft Brew Series. If you have any questions on the beer listed here feel free to drop a comment!
