Trippel Trubbel
Bullfrog Brewery

Thanks to mymrnngjckt for bringing and sharing this at our recent beer club gathering. Poured into my snifter glass. Appears a cloudy apricot color with around an inch of off white foam. Smells and tastes of ripe fall fruits such as pears and apples as well as sweet tropical fruits, yeast, and sweet bread (the kind from the bakery, not the butcher). Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. The sweetness really wore me out as I got to the bottom of my snifter. I'm not craving a refill, at least not tonight.

750ml

A big thank you goes out to the mutt known as Lum for my first taste of Bullfrog, thanks P! Trippel Trubbel dumps apricot orange into my giant Dogfish Head snifter. There's enough chill haze to keep me from seeing through the body and multiple streams of tiny carbonation bubbles rush to the surface. The snow white head sticks to a half finger with an even thicker collar that leaves thick puffy drink lines down the glass. The head is incredibly frothy.

The nose is unusual for the style and I'm really digging where it's taking me. The usual suspects are there with apple and pear although the two are more of the sweet variety than the tart found in the Belgian tripels. The thing that really stands out is the peach and apricot; the apricot is hard for me to explain but has that musty, almost smoky aroma that apricots have. Bubblegum and banana esters bring up the rear while a solid maltiness lays down the base with a sweetness that borders on caramel but doesn't make it that far and settles for a step above sugar cookies. This tripel is spicy and estery all around.

The flavor actually has a little different character than the aroma. The esters are much softer and tend to run together as opposed to the aroma where each segment is easily identified. The peach is the most noticeable fruit and comes along on the backend. Sugar cookie sweetness leads from the front to the back with all those esters rolling across the tongue. Mild alcohol spiciness brings up the rear. Although this doesn't follow the lines of the best Belgian tripels it is superbly enjoyable in its own unique tripel kind of way. I like the fact it steps out of the box a little bit.

Trippel Trubbel has a moderate body that turns to absolute velvet as it glides across my tongue. The carbonation is soft upfront but picks up steam as it moves, finally peaking on the back of the tongue with a soft prickliness. There is zero noticeable alcohol heat in this brew.

This tripel is incredibly easy to drink. The fruity esters, velvety smooth body and lack of noticeable alcohol keep this one flowing far too quickly. I hate to sound cliché but this is a dangerously drinkable brew.

Trippel Trubbel is my first sampling from Bullfrog and thanks to Paul won't be my last. I'm thoroughly enjoying this unique tripel and would love to have another bottle. Thanks for the bottle Lum!

Appears a hazy, dark gold with an orange toned hue when held to the light. A small, white cap sticks around for a bit. Streaks of lacing are left around the glass.
Smell is of peaches, sugary apricot, orange, and pineapple.
Taste is of the mentioned aromas with tropical fruit salad, and angel food cake jumping out.
Mouthfeel is medium bodied, lightly estery, with berries lingering.
Decent brew!

A soft pour produces an almost three-finger thick, pale tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. As I pour this solid fruit aromatics of ripe pear, apple, over-ripe honeydew and some tropical fruit notes greet my nose. The beer is a amber color that shows a lightly hazed, orange tinged, straw-gold color when held up to the light. A deeper inspection of the aroma confirms the dominant fruit notes but there is also notes of black pepper, earthy coriander and over-ripe, not quite rotting ginger in the finish. Actually the over-ripe, not quite rotting description is a good one for the fruit character here in the nose as well. As my nose becomes accustomed to the fruit some spicy, phenolic notes of clove. Despite my somewhat off putting descriptors of the nose, I am really enjoying the aroma of this beer.

The beer is somewhat sweet tasting, but much of this is accentuated by the fruit esters found in this beer, it is also a touch tart which really adds a nice touch to the overall flavor profile. Fruit flavors of tart / ripe pear, star fruit, musk melon (so much more apt than cantaloupe here). There is a definite hint of mustiness here as well, something a bit like a sweet mushroom note, perhaps a bit like a moldy shoe lace (not quite moldy socks, but near there). There beer gets more fruit laden as the beer warms up with a concentrated, pear like note coming to the fore. The finish has a nice peppery, spicy ginger, lingering turpene piquancy, slightly herbal / grassy note and a touch of a hop bitterness to it all of which contribute to a nice bite towards the end of each sip. this has a certain richness to it with a velvety texture, but it is not overly heavy; it is perhaps a bit heavier than I would like a Tripel to be. The sweetness that is here is really well masked by the spiciness and the tartness.

I really like the character that this has picked up during fermentation; the ample esters, phenolics and spiciness is actually quite a bit more characterful than any Tripel I can remember having. At times this really has me thinking I am biting into a ripe, tart melon of some sort. This is quite interesting and quite the enjoyable beer.