Trappist Tripel
Brouwerij Westmalle

4.57/5  rDev +6.3%
look: 5 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
by matuto from Brazil

330 ml bottle, exp. 09/23, excellent beer. Foam never ends. Dense. Alcohol mixes well with other scents, sweet ones. A hidden citric note fits well on mouth. The excess of foam is beautiful but is a bit of a disturbance to the tasting of it.

May 06, 2022

4.72/5  rDev +9.8%
look: 5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 5 | overall: 5
by HorseheadsHophead from Colorado

The beer is a hazy, translucent, bubbly yellow color, kind of straw but looks more burnt orange when held up to a light. Some yeast sediment is in it. Ample carbonation leaves a huge soapy white head that lingers.

The aroma is slightly sour and mildewy, some orange and lemon juice, big white wine/white grape must come to think of it, hay, toasty biscuit, slight sweetness, and white pepper.

The taste follows the nose pretty closely. The main flavors upfront are of dry white wine complimented by a nice tart citrus, (orange and lemon peel) and subtle barnyard funk, with hay, toasted cracker, and a white pepper floating in the background. The wheat and effervescent carbonation give this a fluffy and extremely pleasant mouthfeel. It closes out on a perfect balance of the sweet-dry spectrum. A hint of sweetness to tantalize the taste buds but dry enough to beg the next sip. This brew is wonderfully made. Holy mackerel. I see why many people consider this to be the quintessential Belgian tripel.

Mar 28, 2022

3.72/5  rDev -13.5%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75
by SFACRKnight from Colorado

Westmalle Tripel.... it's been a minute since I've had a tripel, and I quite enjoy them, first time with this one.
Poured into a stemless total wine glass. Hazy gold body, huge soapy white head off a gentle pour. Loose, large bubbles, bone white, slowly fall back to a 1/4" thin head that persists through the life of the beer. Large chunks of sediment despite an attempt to decant.
Nose? Banana, bubble gum, peppercorns, candi sugars, candied lemon peel. A lot going on, complex, no diacetyl or dms, phenols out the wazoo. No hops to speak of. Yeast driven nose, everything else is buried. As it warms there is a slight white wine smell coming through.
Taste, Bananas, bubble gum, alcohol, rock candy. Slight lemon on the aftertaste if I look hard. No hops, no grain, dry. As the beer warms there is a vineous note.
Mouthfeel- thin bodied and dry. Phenols give a suggestion of sweetness as does the alcohol. Effervescent. Each sip bursts into small bubbles as it hits the palate.
Overall. It's a well made beer, the yeast phenols push it into hefe territory for me. I much prefer Karmaleit when it comes to the style. Not sure why I got so much banana from this bottle.

Mar 28, 2022

4.51/5  rDev +4.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5
by FBarber from Illinois

Pours a cloudy bright orange color. Mostly opaque with a moderate amount of suspended sediment. Thick two finger white head forms on the beer, settles in, then dissipates leaving just a thin layer of foam on top of the beer. The aroma on this is lovely - it has notes of malts, white grape, apple, pear, some light banana, and some floral hop notes. Its subtle, refined, yet complex.

The taste follows the nose with notes of rich malts, belgian yeast that leans into the fruity side of things with notes of apple, pear, white grape and just a hint of banana. Along with the fruity notes come some spiced notes - clove, allspice and peppercorn. Moderately spicy, but not overly so. There is a moderate bitterness on the finish with a light floral character. Feel is medium bodied, smooth, and somewhat warming. Very carbonated with a bright, lively mouthfeel.

Overall this is an outstanding tripel and one I will absolutely revisit.

Mar 28, 2022

4.27/5  rDev -0.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.25
by ZebulonXZogg from Illinois

An absolutely gorgeous glass of beer that lasts to the last sip. Cloudy pale orange white sudsy head, but no lacing. This was flavorful and aromatic, banana, clove, caramel and a hint of pear. Smooth, creamy texture, long lasting carbonation. This is just a really great beer, I just didn't like.

Mar 26, 2022

4.29/5  rDev -0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
by Snowcrash000 from Germany

Pours a cloudy, golden amber coloration with a large, creamy, lasting head. Smells of caramel malt, floral hops, with hints of citrus, some fruity esters and hints of toffee. Taste is a great balance of caramel malt, fruity and slightly spicy esters, with notes of banana, apricot and clove, as well as lighter floral, bitter hops with hints of orange rind and toffee also coming through. Finishes bittersweet, with some banana, orange rind and clove lingering in the aftertaste. Full mouthfeel with a medium/rich body and medium carbonation.

This is actually the first time I've had this Tripel and while it is very good indeed, it doesn't quite reach Tripel Karmeliet or Chimay Tripel to me. The banana notes are quite at the forefront here, which I'm not a huge fan of, while the spice is noticeable, but a little subdued. Nevertheless there's a great balance of malts, hops and esters to this, with quite a rich and full body and mouthfeel as well. I was actually surprised by how much hops, relatively speaking, are left in this at just over one year old and would love to try it fresh sometime, which just might edge it a little closer to my aforementioned favorites. Also, considering that this has the highest ABV out of any Tripel I've tried so far, it really doesn't feel overly boozy at all.

Mar 26, 2022

4/5  rDev -7%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
by Troy-Hawaii from Hawaii

Bought a single 11.2oz bottle $6.99 Fujioka's
367 days old or 363 days before best by date
Smell of bananas, spices
Hazy golden-orange color
Medium-heavy mouthfeel
Medium-high carbonation
Taste of alcohol hits me first, then bananas, oranges, cloves, spices
Overall a good beer for the style although the alcohol taste is more present than others of the same style.

Mar 26, 2022

4.24/5  rDev -1.4%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.25
by Reef from South Carolina

330 ml bottle, best by 6/15/22, showing no signs of age; enjoyed in a Westmalle Trappist chalice.

Hazy golden color, one finger varying head which dissipates only slightly. Full cap and curtain lacing. No visible sediment or floaties.
Deep apple, banana, bread yeast, light citrus and pine aromas.
Apple, pear, ginger, raisin, light pepper and floral notes. Light honey sweetness that dissolves leaving a slightly bitter aftertaste.
Smooth coating mouthfeel with little to no alcohol heat. Great lasting carbonation. Dry enough to tempt one to drink rapidly until the 9 % ABV arrives.
A lot to unpack , as it should be at $6.50 for 330 ml in our stores. Merits the “World-Class” designation.

Mar 24, 2022

5/5  rDev +16.3%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5
by ivanbrew

One of the Original triples from Belgium I believe this beer got it all amazing golden color milky head perfectly high carbonation and bitter sweet finish it’s a classic and I love it! And you should too!!

Mar 24, 2022

4.4/5  rDev +2.3%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4.5
by AlexandraDen from Canada (ON)

Pours a hazy golden colour with a strong orange tint, a pillowy three inch head appears and slowly collapses into a thick, lacing creamy line of white.

On first smell, there is a deep, savoury aroma unlike anything I’ve smelled before. Will have to come back to this (many times!) to develop my palate a bit more. Suffice it to say, it’s very enticing. Delicious aromas of yeasty breads, wheat, and spices waft around. Banana’s and specifically green apples make up a strong fruity backbone — less citrus and juicy, more of that smoother textured fruits, the aforementioned creamy bananas, silty earthy apples. Again, that tasty savoury aroma appears almost heavy in my nose. Maybe I know what people mean when they say ‘doughy yeast’ now

Taste does follow the nose, and is remarkably complex in many ways. Spicy fruits up front here for me, apples cloves and nutmeg, a little sweet with maybe only the slightest hint of hop bitterness. Savoury in the middle with tasty grains and malty notes, candi sugar, and banana. There is a very long finish that rests on a gentle bitter-sweetness, remaining with a doughy taste on your tongue.

Medium bodied, this is well carbonated but not carbonated too strong as to overpower the flavours. Coalesces into a creamy sip on the way down, finishes dry and bittersweet leaning on the sweet side.

I love overpowering malty Tripels, which is not what you get with Westmalle. Instead, you get one that is a little gentler, but melds an enormous amount of wonderful aromas and flavours into a perfectly blended and smooth beer. No note stands out too much, each has its place and they wax and wane in and out together to create a remarkable experience. Absolutely wonderful beer

Mar 08, 2022

4.51/5  rDev +4.9%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5
by Weisenbeer from Ohio

This is what great Belgian beer should look, smell and taste like .... Fluffy white head, pretty color, beautiful bouquet and lovely feel ... Big thumbs up!

Mar 01, 2022

4.48/5  rDev +4.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
by showell from Arizona

A marvelous beer. Pours with a complete white head. It has a very malty scent. The flavor is very strong and this one sneaks up on you. Loved it. Not perfect, but I don’t know what would be better.

Feb 12, 2022

4.26/5  rDev -0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
by Lhammer

World class! Great tripel. Citrus, resin, pine, light malt, little bit of an alcohol sting. Smooth going down. Two thumbs up!

Feb 05, 2022

4.54/5  rDev +5.6%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
by NeroFiddled from Pennsylvania

Brouwerij Westmalle "Tripel"
25.4 fl. oz. brown glass bottle "BEST BEFORE END: 2022/11/30". Sampled on 2022/01/23.
$11.99 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: Another beer that's slipped by without me reviewing it. I used to drink a fair amount of this back in the days when craft breweries were few and far between, and I almost have to laugh because back then the big bottles of Belgians were the expensive beers! These days it's the American craft breweries that are taking all the dollars per ounce. It's poured a hazy golden body with a slight bit of an orange sheen beneath a massive head of rocky bright white foam. The head retention is amazing. It started at about an inch and a half tall, maybe more, and it's still an inch tall ten minutes later. Obviously the bubbles rising from below help, and I realize now that I've got it in a large Duvel tulip that's etched on the bottom to create nucleation points for the CO2. The aroma is fruity with apple and banana, a little spicy/woody/earthy (coriander, peppercorn, damp forest), and just lightly bready/biscuity and malty. It's not the boldest aroma in comparison to a lot of newer beers out there these days but you certainly won't miss it. Besides, why does a beer have to have a massive aroma anyway? On to the taste. I think, not surprisingly, that it tastes as it smells. It's fruity, a little sweetish (sugar, honey), cracker-like, peppery, subtly floral, and crisp and dry. There's an undertone of alcohol that enhances the peppery spiciness and bitterness, all of which work together to offset the lightly sugary sweetness and fruitiness. For being a beer that's made up of only golden malts it lingers for some time. In the mouth it's crisp due to the very fine-bubbled, natural, and effervescent carbonation. It warms to become slightly airy though, and creamier. I can't really tell where the body is because of the carbonation. On one sip it seems medium-light but on the next it flips to medium-full. I'll just go with medium for now. It's been a while since I've had this; the last time I think was in Roma, Italy in 2015 but it's mostly as I remember it - this one seems to have a little less banana, but that could just be my changing tastebuds. In any case, this is a classic of the style and basically fault-less. It might even have been the first golden tripel but don't quote me on that.
Review #7,725

Jan 23, 2022

4.29/5  rDev -0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
by VashonGuy from Washington

11.2 oz bottle, dated March 23 2021.

It's a gorgeous beer, lots of foam and bubbles, with a mouthfeel to match. The smell and taste are bananas and cloves, and of course the classic yeast. It's not sweet.

I've had Westmalle Tripel before, but never rated it. My highlight memory was in Brussels several years ago. It was my first visit to Belgium, and day after day was filled with wonderful Belgian beers, all new to me then. We were in the main fine arts museum in Brussels, overdosing on paintings, and stopped at the cafeteria. I grabbed a bottle of beer from the cafeteria cold table, put it on my tray. I knew nothing about what I had just grabbed. But the beer stopped me cold in my tracks. It was wonderful, and nothing like an American cafeteria line beer. That brought home to me how different the beer scene in Belgium was. We weren't in a beer geek bar, we were in a run of the mill cafeteria. And the Westmalle Tripel was like nothng I'd ever had. Great stuff.

Jan 23, 2022

4.73/5  rDev +10%
look: 5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.75
by jimmah120 from Minnesota

11.2oz bottle, 6mo old

Cloudy, tons of suspended sediment, REEKS like banana Laffy Taffys. Peppery banana, little clove, pretty sweet but not overly so, nutmeg, dark fruits, little bit of green apple, just a touch of lemony hops. As it warms, the alcohol heat comes out and the flavor gets more complex

Simply one of the best beers readily available to me

Jan 22, 2022

4.29/5  rDev -0.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
by Rug from Massachusetts

Bottled 11/30/20

I'm not a huge fan of Tripels but I respect them for what they are. And I know this is considered a classic beer by many, so I'm very happy to finally try it. I never used to see it around anywhere beer shopping but it just popped up one day last month and I figured why not. Let's pop it open

Pours a cloudy dark gold with 2 fingers of creamy thick white head that slowly fades to a cap and leaves minimal lacing

There's a bit of an earthy funk in the nose in this one that I'm digging, it keeps it balanced. I'm picking up on aromas of sweet pear, apple skin, wet hay, lemon zest, doughy malt, and overripe banana

The taste here is quite complex, but it all melds together very well to create a nearly crushable beer. On the front end of the sip I'm tasting apple skin, lemon zest, white wine, candi sugar, white pepper, and light floral hops. The swallow brings notes of sweet doughy malt, white pepper, honey, clove, floral hops, and overripe banana

A medium body pairs with moderate fine carbonation, resulting in a downright drinkable beer for the abv. Finishes mostly dry with just the slightest hint of warming alcohol to let you know that it isn't messing around

Seriously wild how easy this one goes down. A very good beer that is getting me excited to seek out more quality Tripels

Jan 16, 2022

4.28/5  rDev -0.5%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25
by Roy_Hobbs from Connecticut

Appearance is an extremely clear golden color with loads of foamy head with very good retention and lacing. Aroma is heavy on the yeast, with cloves and bananas both present. Taste has yeast and fruity esters...banana, clove & grains that all work very well together. Alcohol is very well hidden. Lively, crisp and clean. An excellent Belgian Ale.

Dec 25, 2021

4.37/5  rDev +1.6%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5
by jackflaps from Pennsylvania

33cl bottle. Bottled 2020-10-26, best by two years after that. Poured into a New Belgium tulip I had around.

L: Lots of head (probably would have been less in the right glassware), good retention. Dark golden, a little hazy.
S: Banana, yeast.
T: Lots of fruitiness, a little spice, maybe even a little hop bitterness in the end. All these flavors linger and mix for a long time post-sip.
F: Light and fizzy. Nothing about this beer tells you it's 9.5%...
O: De Garre might just top it in style, but for me it's the best tripel that's widely available in the US.

Dec 25, 2021

4.75/5  rDev +10.5%
look: 4.75 | smell: 4.75 | taste: 4.75 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.75
by magikbagel from Wisconsin

Beautiful beer. Smells like a nice cinnamon banana, yeasty and fruity. Flavor is very well developed and hits many points, bready, hoppy, fruity, and a slight spice. I’m probably not the best at explaining this beer, but it’s delicious. Great carbonation and fluffy head must be mentioned!

Dec 24, 2021