11 oz pour, attractive tulip glass.

It has taken me a little while to warm to The Landing Beer Co. in downtown Fort Wayne. If I’m honest that’s not really a big knock on them, it’s just the typical situation for a legacy drinker these days. Fake sours, pastry stouts and too many hazies/IPAs. Of course, these are universal, not local problems these days. However, on this visit we see 7 out of 11 beers that I would happily try, so that’s a huge improvement on so many situations that I run into lately. The Tripel is of course, my beer of choice today.

This is a decent looking beer with requisite golden clarity, but a head, retention and lace that aren’t great. Yes, it’s 8.1, but it should be a little better than this. Nose is solvent bread, I can live with that. The second pour (pictured) gave a better looking head.

Initial tastes are clean (good) with solvent bubblegum and light apple. The alcohol is present which is a good thing for the style, but it lacks much Belgian candy sugar sweetness. The finish to me is complicated. At first I think I like it, then it feels less subtle. Not sure. Some more solvent burn and a lingering ester note. The former is less welcome than the latter. Lively in the mouth – effervescent, good.

in the end I’m just happy to get a locally brewed Tripel, and that may be the issue here. I think it sits decently within style parameters, and I know that I’m not in Bruges, so that’s OK, but in the end it’s a beer that works in context but perhaps not globally. I’m OK with that, and the real test is would I order it again? Answer, yes.