MacTarnahan's Gran Luxe Tripel Ale
Portland Brewing Company

 

Poured dark amber in color, with a thin white head that quickly disappeared. Smells were yeasty, with caramel and notes of sour apple. Malt and yeast were the dominating flavors, yet not overpowering in the least. Malt was mellowed further by dry fruit flavors. The finish was capped with a heavy sour apple flavor and aftertaste. Great beer, too bad it is no longer made.

Pours hazy orange with a cream-colored head. Aroma is nice, full of candy sugar, yeast, and wheat. The taste is not great, but very good. Dusty yeast esters and clove, but mixed with a rather bland wheat-like tanginess. The alcohol is completely masked by the candied fruit and spices. Like all MacTarnahans beers, good, but not great.

I got scared after reading the last review, as I had just bought a bottle at Hollingshead's right before. Luckily, it seems I lucked out - it had not turned. Review below just got an infected bottle it would seem - bummer. Of course, had he not bought that bottle, it probably would have been the bottle I bought, so thanks for saving me! Anyway, on to the review...

A: Cloudy darker amber color with a 1/2 finger fizzy head that quickly dissipates.

S: Slightly boozy with a caramel sweetness.

T: A good amount of caramel/toffee sweetness. Alcohol is not really apparent, but is nicely balanced back there (the 2+ years it's been aging probably doesn't hurt). Spices and any sign of spiciness is minimal, relegated to the end. Everything is pretty mellow, but also not very complex.

M: Relatively thick for a tripel, with just enough carbonation to keep it from feeling lifeless.

D: Drinkable enough.

Overall, semi-recommended. It needs more complexity, but it's still a nice beer.

*** DO NOT BUY !!! CAVEAT EMPTOR *** SOUR
I couldn't find this on BA until I bought a bottle to try. darn!

Pours a dark red amber with no cap.

Scents told me immediamente that this one took a turn a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng time ago. It's cooked. This is a Flemish Red! All sourness nothing left in the gas tank. Paid $6.99 at Irvine HollingsHead Deli and it is flat out gone!

Last swigs: Just a meager vestige of a triple here. It is sour and horrid. Experimental stage only. Pass me a Govornator.

Beer is usually good. Happy otherwise beering.

Interesting appearance. Carbonation is highly active and well supportive of the flat silky head. Slightly unfilitered Orange hue.

Picked up a sweet and spice type smell and light fruits. Some acidic, sour notes as well.

Hoppy presence up front and turns slightly acidic. Some sweet light fruity taste balanced it out. As the beer warmed up the sweetness came out more and it improved. Big alcohol warming was not well hidden. It was a bit bold and harsh at times.

One I'll try again if the price is right but nothing I'll pursue.

Clear amber color with a pillowy white head. Laces nicely with puffy rings.

Smell is a bit odd. Musty with faint sweet malt and a touch of apple.

Taste is too sweet and a touch cidery. Finishes tart and just a bit odd, but still mildly drinkable.

Not the best tripel out there but one that I might have to get again and cellar to see if it improves. I hope it does.

Pours into the snifter a semi-hazy orange and yellow with a faomy white head that fades away quickly with no lace. Lots of carbonation bubbles screaming for the surface.
Aroma of cracked grain, pale malt and a really orangey and lemony twang of citric acid. In the background is some real psciy and citrusy yeast notes.
Flavors of lighter, but juicy citrus are the underpinnings with some
pale and grain malt interwoven into the fabric of the beer. Yeaat profile breaks through for a second but is quickly overwhelmed by the ever present juicy fruit.
Mouthfeel is tart and sweet through mid-mouth, hits a slightly spicy and yeasty end but overwhelming fruity falvors never real let the yeast take over and finish the spice. A little too sweet and transitions aren't are clean and defined as a Tripel should be.
Drinkability is good. Not quite to style with overarching sweetness, especially as it warms but a very smooth and easy drinking beer which hides the ABV well. Reduce the sweetness just a tad and this would be a great beer.

The beer poured into the chalice crystal clear golden with an amber hue and a white head which rose slightly and fell quickly, but laced the glass.

The aroma was sweet from a distance and more spicy the closer the beer was to the nose. The aroma contained spicy phenoics and aromas of licorice or anise. There was some fruitiness to the aroma, but mostly it was dominated by alcohol and spice.

The flavor was not well done at all. The flavor was winey and vinous and not in a terribly good way. The bittering was balanced well, but the malt backbone was missing. The complexity of spice in the aroma did not carry into the flavor and the winey flavor just was not pleasant.

The finish was grainy and winey flavors that lasted long and not plesantly into the aftertaste. The body was medium or perhaps just a bit less.

22 ounce bottle. Skip it.

I recently revisited a bottle of Gran Luxe that I’d stashed in my basement for a year. A fair guess might place the beer near 18-20 months old. Perhaps I agitated the bottle a bit upon retrieving it from the cellar, for when I paused to examine it, a substantial flurry of yeast clusters floated about like snowflakes in a wintry water bauble, while the floor of the bottle was dusted with soft gray yeast.

Upon pouring, I was greeted by a fruity, cidery smell. I watched furious carbonation swirl upwards, creating a mad turbulence among the yeast flurries. It almost seemed as though the bubbles struck the bottom surface of the head with such force that they bounced slightly downwards again. The head was lumpy, creamy, and sustained. Breakaway clumps formed sporadic lace.

My Gran Luxe tasted more like champagne than any beer I’ve ever known – yes, even moreso than Miller High Life, the champagne of beers. Seriously, it was dry yet fruity with tannic notes resembling apple and pear. The color, derived from candi-sugars, was like pennies in a bright, shallow pool. Shiftless yeasts marred the visual appearance, but my Gran Luxe on the whole was mellow and succinct with pleasant, rounded contours earned from a year of thoughtful seclusion.

22 oz bottle served into a tulip glass. Pours an actively carbonated, bright orange body with a large, rocky, ivory head. Excellent retention and considerable patchy lace.
Aroma is complex, with coriander and white pepper, earthy yeast, sweet candy sugar, some fruity banana, and an unexpected note of caramel malt that seems out of place in a Tripel.
Mouthfeel is medium bodied with low carbonation.
Taste begins with a fruity sweetness which lingers most of the way through. Earthy yeast is assertive in the middle, as well as some mildly bitter hops. The fruity sweetness is reminiscent of Juicy Fruit chewing gum. The taste becomes more dry toward the finish, and some ethanol creeps in, as well, but this one is well balanced, overall.
This is a very good execution of the style, but somewhat overly sweet which detracts from drinkability.

Gran Luxe was served from a silkscreened 22 oz. bottle. In a Duvel tulip, the beer was a slightly hazy rich orange, and was topped by a white head that died away too quickly. The nose was rich and well done, with an orange-zest pear fruit maltiness that was spiced with coriander, pungent black pepper, and alcohol. On the palate, nice and spicy apple-pear tinged sweetish malts opened up with some coriander, lemon peel, and peppery notes in the transition to a lightly bittered, spicy coriander finish that let off a good wisp of alcohol. The finishing flavors cleared out too quickly though, leaving little parting pleasantries. The body was appropriately full for the style, but the carbonation was lacking, as was hinted at by the early head collapse. Overall though, a decent, nicely spiced tripel.

Color's a cloudy orange, with busy bubbles darting about, and a fine, 1/4" head of off-white foam.
Aroma: sugar & spice, with just a whiff of musty sourness as well. Peach and apricot blended with a bit of pepper, straw, hay, lemon and ginger, ...pretty nice.
Taste: oooh, tart! Not expecting that in this one, citric and sour right off, quickly mellowing, and turning dry, with a lingering fruitiness. The tartness is in full control of the flavor, where I guess I anticipating more sugary sweetness, as in many tripels.
Hmmm, after reading other reviews, perhaps something went awry with this bottle?...it certainly doesn't taste like some of the other writers describe it.
Alcohol felt hidden halfway through the bottle, but now starts seeping into my brain, as it is wont to do, and despite the differences in perceptions, and altered expectations, I'm liking this a bit more as I finish it.
(Perhaps it's the alky-holic influence...yeah, it's got a kick!)
More flavors unfold, apples, tangerine, more spices, great, big hoppiness at the fore, full mouthfeel. Very intriquing. I'm almost wishing I had a second bottle, for it took me so long to get into it!

Pours a cloudy golden-orange color, with a thin white head that doesn't last very long, not much lacing either. Bubble gum yeasty aroma, sweet and malty, thick yet carbonated mouthfeel, warming alcohol taste and a nice spicy clove flavor, not a bad tripple.

The beer after escaping the 22 ounce brown bottle sets in the Belgian Triple glass a crystal clear amber color with a smallish white head that dissipate quite quickly, the residual lace a thin sheet to conceal the glass. Nose has a cotton candy like sweetness, hints of banana and maybe cloves, fresh and appealing at any rate, start is also quite sweet with a decent malt presence, the top middling in its feel to the palate. Finish is decently acidic, the hops quite mild and the 9.3 percent alcohol quite evident in the very dry aftertaste and the belly warming sensation, drinkable, but not near as good as most Belgian Triples.

Appearance: Golden Orange. Super clear beer with nice bubbles.

Aroma: Very grapy. Super fruity up front. Syrupy sweetness from caramel in the aroma.

Taste: Sweet caramel and sweetness strike up front. Finish is nice and dry. The beer seems to thin a bit in the mouthfeel. This beer is very decieving to the taste considering it's 9% abv.

Notes: Nice dry finish. Very clean beer for a triple, slightly thin in the mouthfeel, but that helps give this beer a nice clean dry finish.

It pours a clear orange-gold with a good white head. The aroma is fruity, spicy, and malty with some alcohol and a sweetness. It is a little too sweet and the body is a touch too full. There is a nice prickly carbonation and some fruity esters and some spiciness. Peppery alcohol is present in the slightly dry finish. A tasty beer by itself, but it is lacking a certain character for being a tripel.

Bomber purchased at the North Coast Co-op in Arcata, California.

Fast rising inch tall -- or a little over -- head, bright white, fine bubbles, poured into my spacious Duvel tulip glass. The body is copper-tinged amber.

The nose is spicy sweet. Bananas sprinkled with pepper and cinnamon. Buttered croissants. The finish is caramel and an alcohol itch. A round and solid aroma.

Taste opens sugary sweet and buttery, becomes fruity (mango, banana, some coconut milk splashed on the edges) as it approaches the middle where a bitterness rings out high above the sweetness -- these two characteristics, the sweet and bitter, levitate above one another, and in the finish they coincide masterfully. Also in the aftertaste an almost nutty buttery sweetness comes through. Delicious. Mouthfeel is creamy, airy, and plenty carbonated.

Loving it. One of the best American tripels I've ever had.

Pours a solid clear golden brew.

Smell is sweet with malt and banana, and a mild floral scent.

Taste is sweet and creamy with a lot of maltiness to it. Tastes more like a blonde bock beer than a Belgian trippel. A Good strong ale, but not a Belgian.

Mouthfeel is quite thick.

Doesn't really qualify as an Abbey Tripel. It IS a good blonde bock though. As a super strong ale this does work.

ADDENDUM:

I read through some of the other reviews here, seems like most everyone got a different beer! My bottle was very sweet with no spiciness or fruitiness that I would expect from a Belgian beer. This isn't even close it is just sweet and powerfully alcoholic.

As other reviewers have noted, it is unusual to see a brewery like MacTarnahan's offering up a Belgian tripel-style ale, but make no mistake, they are up to the challenge. This beer has all-good properties but of course lacks the magic of some of the best Belgian-made brews. It's still very fine and appealingly local. Some folks have paid upward of 6 or 7 bucks for this, but I was able to go to the brewery loading dock and pick up a box of 12 bombers for under $30. A handsome luminous gold with rising head that eventually disappears, but a swirl of the glass brings it right back. Minimal lacing. Impressive aroma with fruit-like characteristics: apple, peach and a light wisp of alcohol. The malts are substantial, and effortlessly sweet with flavors of bread crust and aforementioned fruit. Alcohol is definitely noticeable but doesn't get in the way, and gives the beer a tantalizing kick and spiciness. A spritzy mouthfeel cleanses the tongue and the finish is crisp and refreshing. The perfect way to finish this sunny, springlike day whilst listening to an old Zombies album.