Review: La Trappe Trappist Tripel (2015)

Another day in self-isolation and sampling a bottle of Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven's La Trappe Trappist Tripel from 2015, a bottle that I received for Christmas that year, bottled in October 2015, making it well over four years old. At the time, Manitoba Liquor Marts carried this and I believe their Quad but discontinued it pretty early on.

This is a Belgian Tripel that tops out at 8.0% ABV. From the label: "An exceptional dark blond ale with a fruity and bitter sweet flavour, a touch of bitter finesse and a dry aftertaste. Brewed with water from our own spring." Water, barley malt, glucose syrup, hops, yeast.

Appearance: Deep opaque amber-caramel body with a hint of sediment that quickly deposits at the very bottom of the glass. Very light amount of head on top of the beer - mostly an off white hue and mostly near the edge of the glass. A tad bit of carbonation in the body at the beginning but not so much as it warms up a bit.

Aroma: Figs, raisins, a bit of a booziness, a hint of peaty earthiness, sweet with caramel, a hint of an oxidized hint.. mostly a hint of cardboard, a hint of a breakfast syrup sweetness and a hint of banana at the end.

Taste: The first thing I get in this beer is a mineral water presence. There's a bit of graininess to it, a good deal of syrup sweetness and caramel, raisins and figs, a bit of banana, bubble gum, clove and a light grassy hop presence at the end. Fairly dry yet has a light syrupiness on the palate, the aftertaste is clove and grain.

Overall Thoughts: La Trappe Tripel is definitely a classic, reminiscent of a lot of Belgian Tripels I've had from Belgium over the years. It's a grainy, it's decently sweet.. especially with the addition of glucose syrup, bit of banana, aged decently but in the aroma it did have a noticeable cardboard aroma to it, so it's definitely not at its freshest.

https://www.latrappetrappist.com/en/our-trappist-ales/la-trappe-tripel/