Grand Cru Tripel
Brewery Ardennes

Poured from a bottle into a snifter
Appearance- The beer pours a clear golden color with a small head of white foam. The head has a good level of retention, fading over time and leaving a moderate sum of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma is strong of a yeast and spice with a sizable showing of clove and coriander as well as a big yeastcake aroma. Along with these smells comes some cracker and bready malt along with notes of white pepper and lemon, with a touch of hay and must,
Taste – The taste is right in line with the nose, with a good clean cracker and bready malt base paired with lots of yeast, and spice of coriander and clove. There is some fruitiness upfront, with flavors of banana, orange, and pear, with the former being the strongest and gaining a bit of strength as the taste advances. All the while, some bubblegum replaces the orange and pear, all while there is a smooth doughiness that joins in. Toward the end some of the pepper and a bit of mustiness join in, leaving one with a nice, moderately sweet, but clean triple taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – the body is medium to slightly thicker for the style while the carbonation is effervescent and bubbly. Overall decent although a slightly thinner more approachable body may have been slightly better.
Overall – rather nice and flavorful overall. A bit fuller bodied for a triple *especially one at only 7 %), but rather tasty and enjoyable.

 

Sampling a lightly chilled 375 ml bottled and poured into my small chalice.
The beer was purchased at the brewery a few days ago. No date stamp on the bottle or label. The beer pours a rich clear copper color with a fizzy and dense bleached white head. This foam sticks around as a fluffy surface covering throughout the sampling.
Aroma is hints of spicy clove and some bready yeast with hints of dough and black pepper. Pretty decent complexity even though the nose is kind of mild overall.
First sip reveals a medium body with very fine carbonation and generally soft texture. Beer drinks pretty easy for a tripel. Not really sticky at all, which I sometimes find in this style.
Flavor is similar to the nose advertisements with some some light breadiness and some spicy cloves and again black pepper. Finish dries out quite a bit. Dont really get any booze hints on this beer and I find it to be easy to drink.
Nice tripel from a new to me brewery.

 

On tap at Brewery Ardennes in Geneva, NY.

This one pours a golden yellow color, with a fluffy head, and a little bit of lacing.

This smells like slightly peppery, with some clove, fresh cut grass, stone fruit, and a touch of berry. It feels maybe not exactly Trappist tripel-like, but maybe more like a Belgian strong pale ale, or something like that? I'm not exactly the expert here, so I'm maybe I'm pulling this one out of nowhere.

This is medium bodied, and pretty crisp, with a pretty nice drinkability.

I don't always love this style, but I really did enjoy this one, so that's certainly something to be celebrated.