Transmutation
Category 12 Brewing

Hazy, with a light reddish brown/ amber color to it that has a finger and a half of yellowish soft looking, frothy head that keeps a decent retention to it and leaves clingy, creamy looking curtains of lacing on the glass.

Pretty decent aroma to it, some sweet, almost over ripe banana and cloves with some subtle hints of pineapples and dried fruit as well.

Malt forward with a heavily sweet almost, syrupy body to it with solid fruit flavors present, some dried stone fruits, apricots, apples and cherries with some faint hints of whiskey and vanilla notes. Heavy bodied, thick, full bodied and potent like a barley wine with a sweet toffee and butterscotch malt flavor.

Finish is strong, boozy and sweet but with a coniferous hop note that increases in bitterness as it warms, though due to the heavy bodied sweetness it sticks to the background, but does add a bit of balance to the beer to keep it from being completely over sweet. Back-end has some strong aromatic Belgian esters with notes of banana chips, cloves, black pepper, musty coriander and pineapple that hang out on the palate along with some warming boozy ethyl volatiles that linger with the sweetness on the aftertaste.

Hazy amber with a strong head. Malty, hoppy nose. Rich full-bodied smooth malt. Considerable alcohol-warming makes this a sipping beer. Too strong for me!

 

 

 

1L howler from Sherbrooke Liquor store - the bottle labels of the same brew tell the tale of a screwed up Tripel, that got saved by the addition of some PACNW hops, or something to that effect.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, slightly rocky, and bubbly ecru head, which leaves some stratified descending cloud form lace around the glass as it lazily recedes.

It smells of gritty white sugar, grainy and crackery pale malt, some muddled domestic pome and stone fruitiness, a white pepper and clove spiciness, subtle Belgian yeast, and rather plain earthy, leafy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, simple syrup, hard to pick apart stone fruit essences, a still ethereal Low Countries yeastiness, muted peppercorn and clove/coriander spice, and more tame musty, earthy, and gently perfumed floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite underwhelming in its barely-there frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, with a very ephemeral creaminess trying oh so hard to get up and off the stone cold ground. It finishes off-dry, yet not by as much as I might have been expecting.

Overall, this is still pretty much a Tripel, just one with more yeast (really) and so-called 'Northwest' hops (the ones specified here are both European), which don't actually have all that much bearing. And for something so close to that nice 'n even 10% ABV measure, you can't really tell, at least not just yet. Good stuff.

 

Dark amber color with a big pile of foam in the Bitburger Lager glass. Quite creamy and foamy in the mouth. Interesting aroma of peaches and alcohol. Maraschino cherry stems come to mind. It's sweet yet bitterish with an astringent finish. Canned pear flavor. Bitter green tea finish.

I don't think the Tripel category is vast enough to encompass this whacky brew. Somehow the Belgian yeast normally masks most of the alcohol taste, but not this one. It would pass for an American Strong Ale, I think. It's peculiar and oddly flavored enough with a malt liquor gone haywire taste. From the 650 ml bottle purchased at Crosstown Liquor Store in Vancouver, BC.

 

Category 12 Brewing 'Transmutation' @ 9.6% , served from a 650 ml bottle purchased for $7.60
A-pour is gold from the bottle to a clear amber in the glass with a medium size beige head leaving a fine spotty lace along the chalice
S-candied sugar & Belgium
T-big & so smooth
MF-decent carbonation , feels full bodied (label says medium body?)
Ov-interesting Tripel & it's local , give it a try
prost LampertLand

Appearance - Pours a rusty orange with two fingers of frothy white head.

Smell - candi sugar, spicy hops, plum, fig, slight banana notes, hint of clove, belgian yeast, toasted malts.

Taste - A pleasant marriage of the candi sugar, spicy hops, and plum and fig. The banana notes, hint of clove, belgian yeast, and toasted malts help finish this brew off.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate to high carbonation. Finishes with a pleasant spicy and fruitiness from the yeast.

Overall - A well executed Belgian tripel that showcases the ingredients quite well. I liked that the flavours worked in unison together. A winner in my books.

 

 

The lingering hop bitterness and hints of burnt sugar set this apart from 'true' Belgian tripels, probably in the best possible way for an IPA fan. And those yeasts...oh baby. Yum f'n yum. Copper amber, slugging harder against the tongue for a mid-weight in the body department than you might expect, this bottle is sheer bud slamming delectability. Om nom nom nom. I'd have another, but I'd have to rise from this chair, wobble to the fridge, and discover it bare. There's another in the box....god, dare I??? Crawling to bed is SO undignified.