Dulle Teve (Mad Bitch)
Brouwerij De Dolle Brouwers

 

 

4-pack of cans from John’s. Lots of head even 18 months after canning. Opaque dark gold. Belgian banana and booze.

God bless those folks in Belgium. This is near perfect. Bravo to Belgium!

A: golden amber with a slightly off white head.

S; pale make and a bit of fruitiness.

T: clove, pale malt, and some herbal notes

M: medium thick feel, with moderate carbonation.

O: overall not bad, but not my favorite example of the style.

 

11.2oz bottled Sept. 2020 (about 18 months ago) poured into a chalice at 53° Fahrenheit 10% ABV. The beer pours opaque, honey colored amber with very light khaki head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of varied sized bubbles leaving just a few small bits of lacing. The aroma is fairly sweet with pale malt, berry and peach. The taste is semisweet and a hint tart with well attenuated pale malt, hints of berry and melon before a mildly bitter, citrus like finish. The mouthfeel is thin to medium bodied with above average carbonation and a dry finish. No trace of the ABV in the aroma and just a touch in the taste. Overall, very good.

 

This one was pretty good. Seemed to lean more heavily into the fruity ester notes along with a nice malty backbone and some belgian spiciness. Enjoyable to drink.

Well what an nice Belgium tripel! One of my new favorite tripels. Cloudy, fruity hints of apricos, bananas and citrus. Soft- bitterness- well hidden alcohol.

L - Hazy golden wheat colored pour with a think white head which dissipates to a thin fine laced foam.

S - Citrus rind, marmalade/stewed apricot, dried grassiness.

T - Stone fruit with light syrup and a clean medicinal bitterness on the finish.

F - Slightly thick and juicy , finishes dry, well hidden alcohol.

A very pleasant and well balanced experience, not leaning in any particular direction. Not too much of anything. Unlike most tripels which rely on the orange and coriander.

 

 

 

12 oz. can. Cloudy and chunky orange. Smells of citrus, light acidity, a little cardboard. Tastes of citrus and orange sourness, fruity yeast, and a little yeasty bitterness. Medium heavy. I don't remember this being sour. Maybe I'll revisit this review with another can from my 4 pack if this is an isolated incident.

 

 

2013 vintage, poured into a teku

A- pours a clear golden amber color with a one-finger creamy white head that has great retention long after the pour, eventually leaving some lacing behind

S- fruity and peppery on the nose, opening with aromas ripe red apples, pears, oranges, apricot and banana. Undertones of clove, cracked pepper, spicy yeast, coriander, and musty basement

T- fruity and spicy yeast up front gives flavors overripe pear, apples, orange zest and peppery clove. Mid-palate gives a cider like flavor with a hint of lemon. The give more fruity yeast, with a light phenolic linger

M- medium body with low carbonation leads to a foamy mouthfeel that turns into a creamy, slightly warming finish

O- this bottle is 8 years old and it is delicious, so many fruity notes coming through the yeast

 

Tasted in a tulip glass from draught at Firkin on June 1, 2021.

 

 

330 ml bottle, at Delirium Café, Göteborg. Cloudy golden colour, huge and lasting head. Spicy aroma with notes of leather and oak. Flavour is again spicy with yeasty notes, leather and oak, fairly dry. Very good.

L: Pours deep gold with a medium haze. A gentle pour results in a fine, off-white two finger head with decent retention. After several minutes the head has fallen to a 5mm ring with the interior of the glass having an insubstantial sheet of head. It leaves a but of spotty lacing as the beer goes down.

S: I get notes of citrus, a note or two of apricot, some spiciness, some notes of banana, and a hint of bubblegum. Nothing too complex or groundbreaking here. The nose may be a bit faded?

T: Apricots, citrus peel, cloves, a bit of herbal earthiness, and sweet oranges on the backend. The finish has some spiciness and has a gentle bitterness.

F: Medium-full body with medium carbonation. The mouthfeel is crisp and the finish has a nice dryness.

O: This is a good tripel. I wanted a bit more from the nose and palate, but recommended if you are into the style or if you are just looking to try a good Belgian beer.

 

 

 

 

Aug 2019 bottle. White head. Golden orange color. Lace.

Really nice Belgium spice, not overpowering. Yeast, banana, clove, bananas. Other tripel spices. Very drinkable, very smooth.

 

Pours hazy and flat, bit of a shame on the head....perhaps served too chilled?

Aroma is superb, punchy, fruity, malty.

On the tongue just wins, same malty fruit can mes through, slightly sweet but not overpowering, no sense of high abv.

Feel is also quality, really smooth, sweet on the tongue runs into the aftermath. Nothing harsh at all. Quality brew

Overall......not the stereotypical Tripel, but my my a mighty fine one at that. This is a gem! A fruity rooty boozy beauty!, Just do it

From an undated 330 ml bottle but I am assuming it is a 2019 batch. Sampled on July 5, 2020.

It is an attractive looking medium amber, mahogany pour underneath a lacing-leaving soft white head.

Whoa! Check out those caramel malts in the aroma! They abound. But also a bit of candied sugar, molasses, dark fruit like fig, and maybe some butterscotch.

The mouthfeel is smooth, medium to full, and chewy.

A very sweet tasting Belgian Tripel compared to some of the more crisp, clean ones. The malt sweetness warms the insides. Caramel characters are all over the flavor. And there is a biting bitterness like rosemary or something hopped up. Not overly fruity but definitely a warming, bitter and satisfying bite for "malt-heads" like me. It deserves it's BA "Outstanding" rating.

 

 

L- First off, this is quite probably the most gratuitously ugly lable design I have seen on ANY beer, never mind just the 1100+ I have reviewed here. It's like ....erm a 15 year old kid gets punched by his proto-girlfriends junkie mother for stealing her gear, and in frustration in class at school he uses purple and yellow highlighter pens to draw this sketch with thunderbolts coming out of her ears. On the bright side it can't possibly be worse than the lable looks. [To be clear, this < ^ is NOT relected in my Look/rating that's of the beer in the glass].
Quite deep amber with hints of orange, slightly cloudy, pours with 1Cm pale tan head [ps. which holds reeeally well].
S- Pretty typical for a Belgian Tripel, deep, some roasted fruits, slightly toasty, you just know there is going to be a solid ABV% coming soon...
T- ... and boy is this one a belter. Deep roasty rich pungency, then after I swallow the first mouthful I involuntarily shudder as a notably rich + ABV% + pungent hoppy note kicks in late! This repeats, this beer seems to have a real kick in it's finish.
F- Rich yet pungent, well balanced. Very good carbonation in the mouth. I'd suggest serving with a decent chill as this is warming a touch already but seems to be sweetening up faster.
O- Big powerful yet refined. Zero to note out of place or balance. Very nice I'd happily buy again. For a very nice trad style beer (blind tasted this could have come from a monastry), I maintain it has the oddest and most contrasting lables you could suggest.
330ml bottle BB [@ cap]: In fact all it says is 'Bottled Oct-2019'.
Bought online from BelgiumInABox Antwerp/BE for home delivery to me in London/UK.

 

330 mL Bottle. ABV 10% (Label), 11.9% (Sticker).
Appearance: Very murky/dirty orange/brown, Two fingers of thick and pillowy light cream head, Phenomenal retention, Lots of sediment, Beautiful sheets of lace clinging to sides, Light carbonation.
Aroma: Sweet apple juice, Pale stone fruit (apricot, peach), Spice (Coriander, Clove), Citrus fruit (orange peel, lemon), Slight banana, Grape, Peppery, Fragrant floral perfume.
Mouthfeel: Above medium body, Warming alcohol, Slightly prickly carbonation, Dry finish but lingering syrupy feel.
Flavour: Sweet apple juice, Citrus fruit (grapefruit, orange peel), Grape, Pale stone fruit (apricot), Banana, Spice (Coriander, Clove), Belgian yeast.
Overall:

Review: 157

 

Poured from bottle into tulip, massive 4 finger off white head, epic retention and lacing. Hazy dark golden in the glass, some sediment floating around (I was rough on bottle, leaked in bag on the way home from store, was sure this was ruined). Smells of belgian esters, floral and lemon with a slight underlying funk. Taste is initially sweet malt, candi sugar, raisins, floral, warming spice, pear man lots going on here. Very good tripel, not your run off the mill one note job. This is a very enjoyable tripel.

2021 UPDATE:
Upping the score upon having a much more fresh bottle. The complexities are exquisite. Smoot fruit and peppry yeast up front; spritely booze and candi sugar in the middle; and an incredible melange of hops and yeast on the back and finish.


H... h....

Ho...

How...

How on earth have I not reviewed this?

It was never anymore rare than the other De Dolle beers. Which is to say, it's gotten harder to find stateside in the past several years, but if you were fortunate enough to live in an area where a distributor or two cared about Belgians pre-2010 or so, it could have been had at a price that at the time seemed high but now would cost about as much as an upstart blueberry NEIPA. So, erm, I guess I never felt much urgency to write a review. And I also always kinda assumed I already did.

The pour is dark for a tripel. It's fizzy, but not over carbed the way some otherwise good Belgians are. A very regular pour for the style.

The aroma is a nice, deep sweetness: nectar, flowers, yeast. It's not super complex, but it's balanced and interesting.

Flavor is very good, borderline great. The aforementioned floral sweetness of the aroma shines through up front, and if the beer had progressed along those lines it'd be be near-perfect. Alas, it melts down into a more alcoholic brew typical of a other tripels--which isn't to say it's not very good, just that it's not other-worldly. It's still pretty darn well balanced. Fruity in the middle, light alcohol burn on the back, and then some grain and yeast complimenting the fruit on the finish.

I think of this more like a very sweet Belgian Dark than a tripel. At any rate, it's a weird iteration of both styles, and pretty darn good no matter how you approach it. Not world-crushing, but certainly worth the 5 bucks I paid for a 12 ounce bottle.