Sint Canarus Tripel
Huisbrouwerij Sint Canarus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Massive fan of this style. When done right, there are few better. This one, however, simply fails to wow.

STYLE: Belgian Tripel

ABV: 7.5%

LOOK: Poured into my Orval goblet. Years after my first experience, I’m still fascinated by these cloudy Belgians. The color, a dirty orange.

NOSE: Atypical. And I’m not sure I mean that in a good way. It reminds me more of a Euro Pale Lager than a sweet, complex treat. I might have wasted the wide glass on this one. Bready, canned, and light earth. Really really surprised by the lack of fruit, sweet malts, and general balance.

MOUTH: Unsweetened banana bread, lagerish, soggy. If people are harder on those they expect more from, maybe I’m not quite the cynical contrarian I fancy myself to be. Again, I love this style. But I honestly feel like I can say this tastes too much like the brownish water in canned green beans. The rest is maybe irrelevant, though the curious might want to know anyway: medium weight, decent mouthfeel, dry finish. There, am I done now?

Beeradvocate Rating: 81*

ratebeer Rating: 78

Hayward Abbey Rating: 68

* Based on a relatively insignificant 29 reviews.

 

Poured from the bottle into a tulip glass.

A snapping sounding carbonation out of the bottle, hits with an off white head, it looks very soapy, very shampoo like, but it manages lots of lacing and retention and clumpy character. Body color is slightly hazy, but mostly a nice orange orb glowing, with classic white pinhead rising carbonation. Nice looking brew.

Nose is alright and fairly solid. A real dry spiced clove sense. Fruit apple and delicious chew bursting flesh. Fairly simple but pretty good. After some time though, the nose doesn't really become obvious. You really need to snort it.

Taste is kind of neutral. Fruit angle hinting of apple on the nose doesn't seem to come through with a bit of a wet angle. Very dry finish, even an almost woody tannic quality to it as all, and a big dry mouth on the finish.

Overall it's not bad, but certainly not a tripel that I would jump at the chance of trying again.

 

Served from tap into a Trappe Door tulip. Poured a pale yellow-orange with a three finger white head that subsided to a half finger slowly. Maintained excellent lacing throughout the glass. The aroma was comprised of sweet malt, spice, tart, fruit, bread, and wheat. The flavor was of sweet malt, wheat, fruit, banana, spice, earth, and bread. It had a light feel on the palate with medium-high carbonation. Overall this was a good brew. I went into this one not really expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised upon inspection. There was a nice balance of flavors and aromas going on here while making it fairly complex at the same time. The breadiness was a very nice touch and helped to tie some of the notes on this one together. Definitely worth trying if you get the opportunity and are a big fan of the style.