Saturday, February 4, 2012

Tripel Karmeliet

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4.5/5

AROMA
9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 18/20

750 ml bottle into chalice, best by 3/29/2011. Pours slightly hazy golden straw color with a nice 1-2 finger dense off white head with incredible retention that reduces to a thick cap that lasts the entire glass. Decent lacing on the glass; with extremely ample carbonation streaming up and keeping a dense head going. Aromas of big pepper, clove, lemon zest, grass, coriander, biscuit, orange peel, herbs, and yeast spices. Fantastic and well balanced aromas. Taste of big pepper, herbal, lemon zest, clove, biscuit, coriander, orange peel, grass, and yeast spices. Fairly dry finish; but some lingering notes of herbal, citrus peel, biscuit, and yeast spices on the finish for a bit. Medium high carbonation and medium bodied; with a slightly creamy and slick mouthfeel. Fair amount of prickly carbonation initially that dies down in the glass. Very smooth and drinkable for 8.4%; with only a slight alcohol warming on the finish. Overall this is an incredible Tripel, as I was expecting it to be. Fantastic and unique flavors; with great balance, complexity, and smoothness. It has taken me far too long to finally try this one.

This is easily a high A beer. Even though this was past prime(though I haven't seen any 750 bottles that were past last years date). This holds up nicely even without that much yeast sediment in the bottle at all. I will be trying out some of the brown 12 ounce bottles to see how they stack up against this green bottle; but it will probably turn out to be the same verdict.

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