YOGN 82
Townsite Brewing

I am not overly well versed in beers of this style, but I certainly like what's happening in this one! It looks like a Tripel should - cloudy orange with a nice fluffy white foam head. There is plenty of candied fruit and gingerbread in the nose that explodes into malty boozy fruity goodness when it hits your palate. A little more random than the best Tripels I've tasted, but Townsite has planted a seed with me. I am looking forward to sampling more offerings from this brewery.

 

650ml bomber poured into tulip 11/6/13

A murky dark amber with enough clarity to see a few bubbles going up the side but I know there's plenty hiding because a large loose three fingers of foam has great retention leaving some soapy lace

S peaches and candied pineapple, faint apple and banana, spice I can't place, sweet orange peel, brown sugar, some booze and leafy hops, smells pretty solid

T sweeter then the nose, more booze, and a little more spice and some brewers candy, I'm a little surprised I only see 4 ingredients on the label, I'm still liking it but the nose had more going on

M not quite creamy, slick on the cheeks, a little heat and a a sweet and spicy finish

O not a bad triple when all's said and done, there's room for improvement but quite easy to drink and smells great

Something I'd drink again and its priced well, still a tough sell with LFDM on the same shelf for a similar price but worth a try for sure

Poured from a 650ml bottle. Pours a yellow-orange colour. The nose is simply amazing, just gorgeous: mandarin, apricot, apple, a little spice. It's really quite unique and enticing. The flavours offered up on the palate don't live up to the nose, but it's still a very tasty beer. It's sweet, and boozy with candied fruit notes. A lovely tripel. I'd like to see more Belgian style ales from Townsite.

 

650ml bottle. Part of a series of annual releases (the 'Hulk Series') commemorating the scuttled ships comprising the man-made breakwater in Powell River's harbour. Nice retro American air force imagery on the label - though too bad about the Anglicization of the Belgian 'tripel', especially as the brewer himself is an expat of that particular Low Country.

This beer pours a clear, pale golden amber hue, with a rising tower of puffy, thinly foamy white head, which leaves some nice dense bonsai tree lace around the glass as it slowly bleeds away.

It smells of lightly biscuity pale malt, a soft drupe fruitiness, and leafy, floral hops, with a touch of perfumed booze. The taste is biscuity, kind of gingerbread-like malt, earthy yeast, low-key candi sugar, soft muddled citrus cream, sweet coriander, and a further boozy leafy, floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is laid-back to a certain extent, but still peppy enough to keep all that endemic sugar on its toes, the body on the lee side of medium weight, and smooth enough. It finishes off-dry, the sweet malt, sugar adjuncts, and fading fruitiness somehow ceding ground to a well-obfuscated alcohol, I suppose.

A pretty good Tripel, the less than normally occurring selling point of a decently integrated ABV well and alive here, with a rather British-style malt profile, that goes a long way in transforming this into a pleasant hybrid of styles, not altogether surprising, given the point of origin - I say that with love.