Abbaye de Bonne-Espérance
Brasserie Lefèbvre SA

Golden red with a large head, and a very fruity smell. The taste is sweet at first, but the bitterness quickly follows and prevails. Overall a good combination and balance. The high ABV is very finely masked as it should be, but the flavours are very complex. A good beer, even if drinkability is not that high, but that is to be expected with this high an ABV.

Brewed and bottled in the 1970's era, and drank almost 50 years later, I'm sure this beer had better days, but still drank surprisingly well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this beer beacause it was from my high school beer :)

 

Delicious tripel from this brewery. Nice three finger head covers a medium bodied beer with lovely flavor of grains/bread/biscuits. This is one of my favorite styles, and this is an excellent example. Nice!

 

 

The beer pours a very clear amber colour. It has got a light carbonation in the middle of the glass. The off white head is two fingers thick and frothy, a bit soapy, leaving little lace on the glass. The head lasts very well.

Smell: malt and citrus. The smell is clearly filled with alcohol but luckily this aspect doesn’t dominate the overall impression.

Taste: sweet, spicy, fruity touches of citrus. From the first sip, the mouth is filled with an omnipresent hop bitterness. The finish is dry. The alcohol presence is very clear and tricky: the bottle says “7.8% ABV” but it immediately feels like a 9%.

The two main characteristics of the beer are sweetness and bitterness.

Bonne-Espérance gives me the impression of drinking a Speciale Belge like De Koninck but in a much stronger and more complex version. A special taste for a triple.

Pours a hazy gold color with a billowing white head that sticks around essentially forever. Sweetish malt aroma, some mild apple esters, and a touch of metal. Flavor is sweet with toffee and vanilla notes, a slight banana/apple fruitiness, mild spices like pepper and coriander, and an astringent finish. A sugary blonde beer that while tasty, is too sweet and astringent to be very drinkable.

Rather pronounced nose of citrus, warm the body is obviously reminiscent of oranges (peel and zest), which inevitably adds to the bitterness. It blooms in a fairly long finish. We mark some spices and a warm presence that boosts the alcoholic beverage timber from. A model very well respected in the Belgian Strong Pale Ale.

A 750 mL bottle with a golden label. The beer pours a clear, golden beer with a thick lacing head. Lots of carbonation.

Smell is light metallic, higher alcohols and and some faint spices.

Tastes like a tripel, lots of higher alcohols which are a bit sharp and add a coarse mouthfeel together with the dryness of the beer. Bitterness is clean and is noticable on the tongue. Malt is just a little pilsnermalty, but the yeast determines the beer. Aftertaste is dry and lingering bitter.

This brew came in a 750 ml, corked bottle that I obtained from an Italian supermarket chain. The beer pours as a hazy orange colored liquid with a bulbous white head. It's got a peppery, sweet, and estery aroma. The smell is nothing that really has any 'wow' factor, but it's a decent Belgian brew. The taste has a bit more spice than the smell portends. It's fruity and sweet, with a little yeast and warmth. Not half bad, it's just not particularly outstanding.

33cl bottle obtained from mail order directly from Belgium.

Poured a hazy golden with a large head. Aromas where spicy, some yeast, and fruity. Tastes of fruits (apples and pears), spices and candi sugar sweet. Definitely on the sweet side.

Notes from and tasted on 6/2/04.

Beer bottle 33cl, tasted in 2003
Appearance : Color tawny-orange. Foam abundant, tight. well saturated.
Smell : powerful aroma, caramel malt nose.
Taste and mouthfeel : soft beer, lellow, fruity, bitterness average.
Drinkability : good beer in the style noble Belgian strong ale

Reviewed 11-14-2007, translated from french 1-6-2008.