Trappistes Rochefort Triple Extra

So, no one yet has contacted the US importer of the Rochefort brands, Merchant du Vin, to see if they have any info on the beer's future in the US?

Merchant du Vin Corp.
917 Pacific Ave.
Suite 501
Tacoma, WA 98402-4497

Phone: (253) 656-0320
Fax: (253) 881-5587
E-mail: [email protected]

 

The new Rochefort Tripel has found its way to shops in the Netherlands (neighboring country to Belgium) recently. I assume shipping to the US will be not too long from now.
Still a nice classic Belgian Tripel taste with some bitterness by the way. I like it.

 

'Triple' is French, and Rochefort is in the French-speaking part of Belgium.
'Tripel' is Flemish / Dutch. Since Westmalle Tripel is considered the first tripel ever, the style is called as such...

 

Ok, it's been a month since the news broke. Any sign of it showing up in the states yet? To borrow some lyrics from Queen, "I want it all, and I want it now!".

 

Yes, exactly this, I was thinking of Veruca Salt singing "I Want it Now" though

 

Well, has anyone contacted Merchant du Vin as noted by jk above? Therein lies the answer.

 

Any updates on this bad boy?

My bro in law told his wife over Christmas that Rochefort 8 was the Triple as he poured it......

Ever been really embarrassed for someone who has no clue?

 

I've been digging tripels hard lately, so I will definitely try it if I get the chance.

 

a guy at work was confused when asking me if Carlsberg “ danish Pilsner” was a different beer than the Carlsberg lager. I tried to tell him. Confused him further. Is what it is.

 

There's no reason why Gulden Draak wouldn't be a "true" tripel. The strong-blond-Belgian convention is only a case of brewers imitating Westmalle - who popularized the idea of a blond tripel when they adopted that name for the renaming of their strong blond beer. Gulden Draak being described as a dark red tripel isn't a case of them using additional language to differentiate it from a "true tripel" - It's a case of them giving more information because a dark Belgian tripel is a rarity.

 

The style tripel evolved as a pale strong beer, and has been defined from its earliest days from its popularization (or invention) by Witkap and Westmalle. They didn’t adopt an existing style, there were dubbels, and then they created tripels (kinda like how there was no such thing as a quad even though there were beers we’d recognize as quads until the term entered general use and then was applied to beers that used it an mimicked other quads and means a darker and even stronger beer). Ergo, all tripels are pale unless described otherwise.

Now, to whatever extent you want to quibble along the lines of the initial term not representing a style and all style names being more marketing than true definition outside competition, or if we all start calling dark tripels “tripels” for a long enough period of time the term would grow to include them as well, sure, whatever, but today, and since they came into being in the 1930s as a pale beer and that is their only popular usage, as much as anyone can ever be wrong in these silly pedantic arguments, you are.

edited to add: Gulden Draak has variably been described as a barley wine. It was first introduced in 1986. To the extent they use the term "tripel" to describe the beer today, it is always in conjunction with "dark" or "dark red." There are no popularized commercial examples of dark tripels going by the name tripel. To whatever extent someone is going to dredge up an example or few where someone tried in history, history is littered with breweries (and companies) applying popular names to their products to tie them together, but with tripels, if there are indeed examples, they've fizzled out.

So, not making the Ding argument here, if we all want to work together to make "tripel" mean "...and also dark tripels" by gum I'm sure we can do it. And it might happen anyway, someday. But today, nah, and Gulden Draak isn't an exception.

 

Makes sense indeed. I'll continue to eagerly await its arrival.

 

Seen in some Facebook groups they're working through some diacetyl issues. I'm excited for it, but even happier to hear they're working on dialing it in before going international. In the meantime, I'll pour myself a Gul-I mean a Westmalle to tide me over.

 

Well, I am not willing to "work together' on this effort and furthermore I will be fighting against this effort.

Beers that are dark in color are not Tripels. So 'says' the BJCP et. al. and so do I.

Cheers!

 

Couldn't agree more!