Friend Banded Belgian Tripel
Village Brewery

 

Amber/gold body, a tad hazy with suspended yeast. Fine, pure white head builds up nicely at first, but dwindles to a thin layer in a minute. Aroma is lightly spicy and fruity.
First thing that jumps out is the body and mouthfeel - creamy, buttery, full, fatty. Sweet and sugary, simple flavour with some tang - lemon, coriander, lightly toasted grain, lightly vegetal/fruity clearly coming from the yeast. A touch of effervescence and late-breaking hops lead to a dry finish that balances out the sweetness and begs for another sip. There's almost no hint of the high abv.
There's really not that much going on, and yet it is satisfying and delicious. Everything I like about Belgian beers - that undefinable full flavour contributed by unfiltered yeast and a full body to accompany it.

 

Appearance - Pours a warm amber hue with two fingers of frothy white head.

Smell - Spicy Saaz hops, fruity esters (plum, raisin), bready malts with hints of caramel, and a hint of fresh cracked pepper.

Taste - Similar flavours as the aromas presented, first up with the spicy noble hops, fruity esters and bready malts. Just a touch of caramel for sweetness. Slightly peppery. Moderate level of bitterness.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate-high carbonation. Smooth alcohol warmth.

Overall - A nice little collaboration between Village and Banded Peak (the new kid on the brewery block). Not the poster child for a Belgian Tripel, such as Unibroue, but pretty darn close to it.

Bottle: Poured a clear golden color ale with a nice white foamy head with OK retention and some light lacing. Aroma of residual candi sugar with some Belgian style malt notes is OK. Taste is mostly dominated by residual sugar candi notes with some alcohol ester and light yeasty spicy notes. Body is about average with oily texture and good carbonation with some apparent alcohol. Lacking some attenuation and residual sugar is a bit more dominant then I would have liked.

 

 

650ml bottle - a collaboration between Village and the new Cowtown startup Banded Peak Brewing. Based on the label, this one should be called 'Bearded Belgian Tripel', amirite?

This beer pours a clear, bright medium golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some streaky melting glacier lace around the glass as it lazily subsides.

It smells of bready and biscuity caramel malt, candi sugar, estery Low Countries yeast, faint nail polish astringencies, some indistinct pome and citrus fruitiness, and very subtle leafy, earthy, and perfumed floral noble hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, a touch of biscuity toffee, warmed apple cider, understated generic citrus rind, white sugar syrup, ephemeral earthy spices, and further leafy, herbal, and soused-up floral green hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite adequate for the job at hand, via its taciturn frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, with a wee airy creaminess arising despite the looming alcohol ingress. It finishes off-dry, and not nearly as sweet as one might have been expecting here.

Overall, this is a very well-made version of the style, with the typically overwrought sweetness dialed back to sensible levels, and the big 10 points of wowee sauce kept to a mere background role. A splendid coming together of brewing prowess, in that it makes this non-believer (in Tripels, I mean) see the veritable light of day.