Brewmaster’s Selection Wild Tripel Hop
De Brabandere

Copenhagen 3/4 2021. 33 cl bottle from Beerdealer web-shop. White label with three connoisseur sniffing and evaluating beer (one of them green for some reason).

Pours clear, golden yellow with a big white head. Settles as uneven, frothy, lumpy layer of foam crawling up the sides of the glass. Substantial lacing.

Aroma is intense with a sweet malty odor balanced by a fruity, sour scent. Pale malts, oxidized apple and white sherry. Sour grapefruit and lemongrass.

Light carbonation. Thin, oily, lightly tingling texture.

Flavor is fairly intense with a medium strong sweetness followed by a stronger tart sourness. Aftertaste is sour and vinous not unlike a dry white wine. Lingers for a while. Finish is dry with a light boozy streak.

Nice, dry and sour and fairly straight forward brew from the Foeder.

 

 

 

L: poured a very light and clear golden yellow. Head was high and white and had nice lacing and long life.

S: A bit of hoppiness anf slightly more acidic on the nose rather than sour. Floral notes are.therw nut muted.

T: The hops sort of leap forward and dominate but in a burnt and bitter manner. The sourness of the foederbeer is masked. Somehownin spite of these negative notes, I find this beer still enjoyable and easy to drink. Something challenging about this one.

F: Has a light feel. Finishes easily. Carbonation is light and lively and this beer holds is alvohol nicely.

O: Hits and misses all within one glass. It's potential is limited by a sort of bitter hop flavor. Otherwise, this is a well put together dry wild ale.

 

De Brabandere "Petrus Brewmaster’s Selection Wild Tripel Hop"
750 ml brown glass bottle, corked & caged, coded "04-08-2020 7216 A 14.53"
$13.99 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: The first pour from a long-standing bottle is crystal clear. I can see my fingerprints through its golden body. The massive head of frothy bright white foam has died down a bit now but it's still at least a finger width thick, about an inch or so. The aroma is interesting. It reminds me of sweetened lime, and I also smell Cascade hops but not like you normally think of them, bright and clear with lots of citrus, but more like Cascades within golden malt - not everyone will be familiar with it but Yuengling's Chesterfield Ale has a similar aroma. Surprisingly I'm not finding much more, I guess the malt is just that strong. Let me check and see what the bottle lists for hops... Cascade and Amarillo. Ahh, yes, knowing it's in there I get some orange from the Amarillo as well, but not too much. Moving on, let's taste it... it's not as "wild" as I thought it would be, and that sweetened lime note remains amidst lightly sweet golden malt. It's mildly tart. There's enough that it works with the citrus though, and it helps to dry it in the finish. I'm a little disappointed though, it's not that wild, it's not that hoppy, and it's pretty much the same flavor straight through from start to finish. That doesn't make it bad, I just had bigger expectations which is my fault. 15% of it is also aged for 24 months in oak foeders which I thought would give it more character, of course that leaves 85% of regular beer. There is some woody dryness to it but I don't particularly find it to be oak. It does help to dry it though, along with a stiff bitterness and the aforementioned tartness. Looking back, there's still a solid surface covering with a thicker, raised island floating in the center, and sheets of lace surround it looking like clouds in the background. OK, let me pour some more and see what happens... nothing. I was expecting yeast and cloudiness but I'm guessing this is pretty heavily filtered so that nothing goes wrong with some odd, wild yeast getting through. Still, it's an impressive appearance, you don't get much better. OK, the mouthfeel - it's medium-light in body and mildly effervescent with a fine-bubbled carbonation that lends a gentle caress to the palate. I could use perhaps a little more bite, but I won't complain. The more I drink it the more I like it, and I feel stupid for thinking that it would be more than it is. It does say "Wild Tripel Ale", I just added in the hops on my own after reading that it was whirlpool and dry hopped. With that said I should also note, just to give you a baseline to work with, in general it seems a lot like Duvel to me, well at least at its base, that's the closest comparison I can come up with. What's the alcohol content? 8.0%? Well Duvel's 8.5% so that's similar. The difference here is the moderate oak and the light tartness and the extra hops. It doesn't come on strong at first but Mmmmmmm, it's tasty. This is definitely a special beer. It's very refined. I'd imagine this sells great in Europe, and the rest of the world, but here in the U.S. where we're used to brighter and sharper hops it probably doesn't turn as many heads. Haha! Typically American! What brash beasts we are! At least we can take some credit for influencing it, but it should probably also get a lot more respect than it does. I'm going to call it an almost instant classic and hope that they continue to brew it. In fact, I'd love to see them do a whole series with different hops - this seems to be screaming for some Mosaic! Worth trying to be sure.

 

 

Poured from 750 mL bottle into tulip.
A: Pours a crystal clear pale lemon yellow with moderate carbonation jets fueling a 3-4 inch bubbly white head with excellent retention.
S: Citrus (orange and soft grapefruit especially) and herbal grass hops hit first with notes of farmhouse funk, white pepper, and tart berry following. Hint of salty cheese. Fresh and complex.
T: Orange and grapefruit hit first, quickly followed by soft oak, tart berry, white pepper, grassy and herbal hops, and hints of tart lemon and honeyed cream. Refreshing and complex!
M: Light body which belies the 8% ABV. Nice prickly effervescence. Softly sweet, mildly tart, and hints of funk and spice. Wonderfully balanced. Lingers and matures nicely on the palate too!
D: This was a nice surprise! Love the aroma of the hops, really like the contributions in the taste of the oak-aged foeder beer, and the base Belgian tripel shines through too. Layered and complex with great balance and yet also refreshing. Hard to find a beer that does all that. Great job, Chris and De Brabandere!

 

 

A: The beer is slightly hazy yellow in color and has a moderate amount of visible carbonation. It poured with a quarter finger high white head that died down a bit but has very good retention properties and consistently left a short head covering the surface.
S: Light aromas of floral hops are present in the nose.
T: The taste follows the smell, having favors of floral hops with a light amount of bitterness.
M: It feels medium-bodied and slightly tart on the palate with a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: For a wild ale, the beer has essentially no sourness and only has a bit of tartness.

Serving type: bottle