Grande Tripel
Brewery Ommegang

Poured form a can into chalice glass
Appearance – The beer pours a lightly hazed golden color with a big head of puffy white foam. The head hangs on for quite some time, slowly fading and leaving tons of streaky and foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma massive of a coffee smell mixed with a strong sweet vanilla bean and a big showing of a bready and yeasty aroma. Along with these smells comes a big clove and coriander smell mixed with some biscuit and cracker malt and notes of hay and wood.
Taste – The taste begins with a biscuit and cracker malt base that has a large presence of coffee and yeast. There is also a decent showing of apricot and a touch of grape, mixed with notes of clove and coriander spice. The vanilla, while heavy in the nose, is very light on the tongue, with it being almost none existent upfront and gaining some strength as the taste advances. All the while the malt gets a bit bigger while the coffee fades a tad. Some light cocoa and more spice come on at the end, and with some light wood, one is left with a moderately malty coffee triple flavor to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body is medium in thickness and creaminess with a moderate carbonation level. Decent for the style, abv and flavors making for an overall easy sipper.
Overall – A decent triple with a nice coffee flavor, although a bit more malty than I would have liked for the style. Fun none the less and certainly worth a try.

A goblet of dirt.

 

The date has 16Jan2026, must be best by date
Pours a large frothy 3 finger head with fair retention, a bit rocky, soapy lacing, medium golden orange color with lots of sediment

Nose is a bit odd, lots of green pepper up front, then some spicy coffee notes, vegetal vanilla, sweet malt, cereal grain, little toffee,

Taste brings the vanilla first, raw vanilla bean and some nutty coffee, golden malts and a golden like coffee, has a golden stout like character, some Belgian yeast phenol spices including a bit of pepper, some warming booze, little toffee and sweetness, fair bitterness on the semi sweet finish

Mouth is med bod, higher effervescent carb, a touch syrupy, fair warming almost tingly booze

Overall this was a mess, no idea what they were trying to do here but it's just a huge clash of all the weird things and none of the good Belgian tripel characters, quite unpleasant

16 ounce can into tulip glass, canned on 1/10/2025, BB 1/10/2026. Pours deep golden amber color with a 2 finger fairly dense and fluffy white head with good retention, that reduces to a thin spotty lace cap that lingers. Spotty soapy lacing on the glass, with some streaming carbonation. Aromas of big vanilla, nutty medium roasted coffee, pear, apple, banana, clove, peppercorn, herbal, floral, grass, cracker, and yeast earthiness. Taste follows with big vanilla, nutty medium roasted coffee, pear, apple, banana, clove, peppercorn, pine, cracker, bread, candi sugar, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast earthiness. Medium pine/herbal bitterness and peppery yeast spiciness on the finish. Medium-high carbonation and medium-plus body; balanced bready/grainy malt and sticky/resinous hop mouthfeel. Fairly crisp finishing with lingering hop resin dryness. Mild lingering hop/roast astringency. Mild increasing warmth of 9% after the finish. Very enjoyable with a good balance of the coffee/vanilla flavoring and tripel style aspects, just a bit too bitter.

Picked up a 16 oz can from the Appalachian Vintner in Asheville on 8-2-25 for $4.67. Canned 1-10-25; best by 1-10-26; consumed 11-4-25.

Beer poured orange with a very nice white head.

Nose is oof, getting coffee, vanilla, some herbal phenols. This comes across as a strange combination, like a menthol cigarette.

Taste is a large yet light pilsner malt base. Coffee and vanilla additions are struggling to mesh together, and it fights the yeast phenols. The coffee vanilla seems better in back-end aspirations but still, each sip is a misadventure.

Mouthfeel is very legit as this light to medium bodied beer comes across as silky smooth and soft.

Overall, i did not realize there were adjuncts in this beer. Shame on me. My first sip caught me off guard. I am not sure why Ommegang would put this into distro.

Grande Triple from Ommegang. 16 fl oz can picked up at Franklin Beer, Franklin, PA, 28/08/25 - $ 4.50 (including tax)/$ 0.281/fl oz. Reviewed 15/09/25, review 3588. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated can. Stored at home at 40 degrees F. Served at 44.0 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature is 50.3 degrees F.
Appearance – 4
First pour – Pale Gold (SRM 4), clear.
Body – Deep Gold (SRM 6), clear, lively carbonation. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, pale gold. Second pour has some precipitate.
Head – Large (Maximum 5.8 cm, aggressive center pour). Linen, high density, average retention, leaving a 0.6 – 0.7 cm crown and a partial, rocky cap. The crown has two ascending horn-like arcs.
Lacing – Fair. Three arcs of tiny to small bubbles as well as a few islands remain above the crown. See also above.
Aroma – 3.5 – Spicy and a bit fruity. No malt, no coffee, no vanilla, no alcohol.
Flavor – 3.25 – Follows the nose – mildly spicy and some generic fruit. No malt, no coffee, no alcohol (9 % ABV, according to the label). No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. A bit of vanilla on the aftertaste. Slow gastric warming.
Palate – 4 – Medium: Watery: Lively carbonation.
Style: Follows the style guidelines as condensed by BA.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 (After deducting 0.25 point for an undated can) Uncredited artist. Average tripel – unable to find any trace of the additives in the nose, and the vanilla only shows in the aftertaste. Coffee, my favorite additive, is totally missing/hidden as are any alcohols. Overall, an unremarkable tripel.

Imagine a Belgian tripel masquerading as a blonde coffee stout . That's what you've got and I love it. I love both of those beer styles and this one creates a new category for cigars and sipping.

Golden, with a rich, thick and creamy head. Lots of lace.

Nose is sweet pilsner malt and vanilla. A trace of anisette and light peppery spiciness. Vanilla cascades with gentle notes of coffee.

Taste is a real category breaker. Front is Belgian pilsner malt sweetness. Vanilla steps up and takes you to a big latte deliciousness. Sip, don't chug. Alcohol is beautifully hidden and makes for a low bitterness in the finish.

Smooth creamy feel. Silky swallow. Crisp and surprisingly light for such a big beer.

I really like this. A great sipping beer and as anyone knows, coffee and cigars will change your life. This is a great change of pace for me from usual stout, bourbon, and stogie.Getting some more to enjoy with my cigar buddies. Nice.

Look: It pours dark gold with good clarity. It has an off white head with very good head retention.

Smell: It has strong coffee aromas up front with spicy elements in support. There are some coriander and lemon touches.

Taste: It has strong coffee aromas with vanilla and lemon. There are some coriander elements with moderate Belgian funk. There are also some pale malt notes.

Feel: It has a dry finish with pleasant alcohol warming.

Overall: For traditional tripel drinkers, this may not be the beer for you. I like innovation, but to me the flavors are all overall the place and don't really work well together. That isn't to say it's a bad beer, becauser there are plenty of good things about it, but this isn't quite to my liking.

Aroma is malts, coffee and big spices/earthy/very vegetal. The flavor is fruit, big vegetal, malts, coffee/mild chocolate and a spicy Belgian yeast finish.

 

16 oz can from the Appalachian Vintner ($4.67) in Asheville, NC with a January 10, 2026 Best By date stamped on the bottom.

Appearance. Clear golden body topped with an excellent off-white head.

This is an odd beer. Fans of tripels may be put off by the unusual addition of coffee while fans of coffee beers are likely to be jarred, at least for a while, by notes of banana. I'm a fan of both and believe the brewer did a fine job of making this coffee-vanilla tripel, but it still seemed like a questionable combination. It does have a good balance of flavors from the Belgian yeast and coffee, with more subtle vanilla.

 

Pours a mostly clear gold with a healthy head of foam, lacing and retention is good.

Smell is coffee and vanilla. I get nothing else.

Taste is strong coffee notes, almost as strong vanilla notes, plenty of alcohol...I don't see any semblance of a base Tripel as stated on the label.

Fullish mouthfeel, to me this is not very drinkable.

 

 

 

 

Can from John’s = auto buy. Magnificent head on the pour. Coffee nose. Flavor somewhat works, wish it was even subtler but it’s still good tripel.

I was very surprised not to find this on their page - albeit, it's a limited release, but still...

Anyway, I found this to be, in short, a strange tasting tripel. The alcohol is well hidden to the tongue but you sure do feel it. The look is very appealing and the smell hints of the coffee and vanilla touted on the can art. I even found the mouthfeel to be the creamiest I have had in quite a while. What I couldn't get past was the overpowering, to the point of making it taste not-so-good, coffee flavor this brew had. It was too much for my palate. I wonder what others would think...