There are a million tripels around (I was a little surprised when I started looking at my notes and Untappd checkins and realized we’ve had two dozen in the last week or two). Truthfully, it’s not my favorite style. It’s inconsistent and has no unifying characteristics other than being strong and pale.  In theory, they should be roughly similar to Westmalle Tripel, but that’s a pretty loose standard. Many use pilsener malt that has a creamy sweetness, but not all. Most are lightly-hopped, but some have a lot of floral, herbal notes.  So I’ve generally been more interested in the dark abbey beers. Wind, on the other hand, generally likes tripels and tends to gravitate to them when she’s not sure what else to get.

But as I think about moving back to Florida in June, and being able to brew a batch of beer, I know we should brew something on the lighter side. So, since Wind likes them a lot and I do like some tripels quite a bit, we decided to try a bunch and see what we liked.  We’ve seen some American beer around (especially at De Bierkoning in Amsterdam), but we stuck with Belgian and Dutch tripels for this experiment, since there were a ton to choose from.  Hopefully, it’ll help us narrow down recipes when the time comes.

In general, we found them very drinkable, and agreed on our assessments of them. But, there were a few that only one of us liked, and a few that were standout cluckers:

• De Leckere Razende Swaen (Raging Swan): this is local, and we’ve liked some of their beers. But it was too herby, and funky.
• Muifelbrouwerij Broeder Everardus: this is a little bready and biscuity, with more aggressive hops than typical. The typical pilsener malt shows up in the aroma. But the flavor gets lost in the hoppy bitterness.
• Hertog Jan Tripel: the best thing about this beer was the bottle (it comes in a squat, black earthenware bottle). It has a nice, rich golden color, but the flavor is bland and syrupy.
• De Koninck Tripel  This seemed OK at first. But it has a lot of unfermented sugar and caramel. I wound up finishing Wind’s glass (she would have poured it out), mostly because I was trying to remember what it reminded me of. Alas, it was a bad batch of homebrew that had an incomplete fermentation, and mostly wound up sweet and overcarbonated.

The vast majority were very nice, and varied quite a bit. I’d divide them roughly into two groups: the boozy and the herbals.

Boozy (clean, simple, and with a definite alcohol kick):

• Texels Tripel: very boozy and aromatic.
• Maredsous 10° Triple: smooth but also pretty boozy.
• Waterloo Tripel: very pale.
• Achel 8° Blond: had a somewhat strange sweet metallic taste, but otherwise nice.
• Affligem Tripel: strong, unified almost monolithic.

Herbal (a wide variety of fruit, floral, herbal flavors):

• Gouyasse Triple: very herbal with hops and rose dominating.
• St. Bernardus Watou Tripel: very fresh, fruity (apple? tree sap? clover?). Wind liked this more than I did.
• Steenbrugge Tripel: malty, floral.
• Kasteel Tripel: fruity (banana), caramel and also a little twang.
• Gentse Tripel: wheaty, milky, fresh hay.
• Kwak: herbal.
• Petrus Gouden Tripel: good CO2 bite, malty, with some bitterness in the finish

There were a few tripels that we really liked.  We’ve been talking about doing a second round and trying these all side-by-side to really compare them closely.

• Tripel Karmeliet: this is probably my favorite (and I think the first tripel I ever had). It’s sweet and light. Nothing overpowering. But very tasty.
• Westmalle Tripel: this is one of Wind’s favorite beers. It’s sweet, boozy and creamy.
• La Trappe Tripel: just a bit of sourness, and a bit earthy and herbal, but not too much.
• Chimay Blanche (Cinq Cents): a little bitter and floral, but very balanced, with some creaminess.
• St. Bernardus Tripel: rich, malty, meady and velvety.
• Val-Dieu Triple: fizzy, and light, with some candi sugar like a dubbel.

There were also a couple of tripels that were split decisions. We’re thinking of adding these into the second round, too.

• Brouwerij ‘t IJ Zatte: floral, rose and herbal. I really liked this, but Wind hated it. I even tasted some from her glass to make sure that we had the same thing.
• Triple d’Anvers: Unlike De Koninck’s other beer we tasted, this was not terrible. It had a definite twang you don’t usually see in triplels, and was also very sweet. I didn’t like it much, but Wind thought it was pretty good.