Red plastic covers the capped, 750 mL bottle. On opening there is a touch of gunsmoke but not much other signs of life. The words “American Trippel” on the label. I’m not keen on the spelling, nor on the word American coupled with the word Trippel – it has me worried, and as it turns out with very good reason.
Pour is a promising, orange hazed affair with better head and lace than I initially thought I was going to see.
Nose gives gentle citrus in the form of grapefruit and not much else.
Tastes reflect the nose but with a pretty healthy dose of pepper along with the grapefruit, and a fairly harsh, dry, bitter ending. There is not a hint of sweetness which for me means that this is NOT a Tripel by any stretch of the imagination. Belgian IPA perhaps, but the preponderance of hops mean this beer seems well-entrenched on the American side of things rather than the Belgian.
As it warms more floral notes come through.
It’s not a bad beer, and I quite enjoyed it, BUT I was mildly disappointed because this is in no way a Tripel. The sweetness and the Belgian yeast character is largely missing for me. I wanted to like it much more since I wanted far more Belgian character. A Tripel ought to be a Tripel in my book, and this ain’t one.