Schele Os Tripel
Maasland Bierbrouwerij

Purchased at the UTOBEER stall, Borough Market, S. London. Bottle-conditioned, coming in a slim 30cl brown bottle, BB 07/2005, consumed a little more than a year later (16/08/06). Served lightly-chilled in a tulip-shaped wine glass.

A: amber hue, murky with small chunks of yeast-sediments diving in the beer... a restrained beer head settles in no time to a rimmed foam; low carbonation.
S: honeyish-malty, candy-sugar, assertive fruit-esters of tropical fruits (tangerine+apricot+marinated pineapple-slices)--like yeast-drinks; plus dried tangerine-peel, coriander, and a faint touch of white pepper. Yeasty, semi-alcoholic, and the sweet edge of malts and sugars are slightly overpowering. Thankfully the sweetness does soften as it breathes and warms up.
T: creamy malts... quickly followed by a tangy edge of citrus-peels, grassy and aromatic hops, a touch of candy-sugar, and a flow of warming alc., which slowly settles and leads towards an intensifyingly dryish and hop-bitter mouthfeel with plenty of coriander-, peppery- and clove-spices lingering down the rear of the tongue... surprisingly clean and dry finishing touch, quite in contrast to the sweet nose. Nice!
M&D: the mouthfeel is really good, full of soft-soft fizziness, creamy malts, and a bit of powdery texture due to the chunky yeastiness... medium-bodied, not particularly alcoholic but a good warming backbone stays way longer than the palate itself. Overall, not extremely complex but solid, with an evolving structure and a welcomed bitter-ing finish that increases the overall drinkability of this beer by a good margin... and the longer I sip it, the more assuring and satisfying I find this beer to be... Well worth a try.