A small sampling from Sunday that we had included the following beers:
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Green Flash Trippel
New Belgium Trippel
La Fin Du monde Tripel
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Bodington's Pub Ale
Abbott Ale
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Franzishaner Dunkel
Weinhenstephaner Hefe Dark
13th Century Grut Bier
We tried to go for an all trippel type tasting but failed a bit as we found some other interesting tries.
Among the three trippels, the La Fin Du Monde Canadian beer was among the highest scored beers that we tried. We all agreed that it had a bit more fermented fruit type flavor to it..A complexity that is hard to truly appreciate as it brought so much flavor with it. It almost seemed like the La Fin Du Monde beer was more organic tasting in how it was brewed. Not to say the others had artifical tastes 100% of the way, but it seemed like the other two tasted a bit 'too good' as the imperfections of the Canadian beer really gave it character...The Green flash beer was quite a surprise. A bit more American and straight forward tasting compared to La Fin Du Monde. But it wasn't a bad taste persay.. As a whole, the trippel category was a sure fire hit for those tasting with us.. A bit of fruitiness, citrus, minimal hops, a little malt flavor, and that fruity yeast character that categorizes the entire genre... Yumm.. And on top of that for the trippels, your booze factor. I would never have given the New Belgium Trippel a first chance on a 4-6 pack purchase, but would now. That Belgium style is right to my liking...
I had professed a few months back about how Belgium Golden Ales or Strong ales were quite amazing with their complexity on a sweet note, adding all sorts of sweet characters otherwise unknown to me. The Trippels just added to that fact that beers can be sweet, and beers can taste amazing without any hint of hops.
Abbott Ale vs. Bodington's Pub Ale was quite the unfair tasting looking back. Bodington's had this draught style insert geared for a more smooth flavor... All we get out of this, including the nitro style beers, is that the beers do in fact taste smoother, but they also tend to have zero carbonation.. Abbott's Ale was a decent pale ale with above average flavor and character.. It was just another one of those beers you try, and move on with.
Not much of a review on my part on the next two. I kind of knew what I was getting into when I tried them
Franzishaner Dunkel was a bit darker in taste compared to their GREAT hefeweizen. Less Banana notes, and more of that dark malt character with the same amazing dryness made this one a great choice
Weinhenstephaner Hefe Dark.. Their normal Hefe is regarded as one of the best Hefe's in the world. This time around, the darker flavor wasn't quite as pronounced as you would assume. It' was more of a hefe "medium". But that's okay with me. The flavor was essentially the same as their normal hefe. So it was all smooth sailing from there..... If you love the darker notes out of either European beers, attempt to try either of these. If you want to stick to the style that is still reviewed as some of the better beers around, go with the traditional pours...
Now the weirdest for last.
13th Century Grut Bier has this long drawn out description on their bottle describing how they use bay leaves, caraway, anise, and other herbs in their beer... This one was just an herbal circus from the beginning.. It wasn't a poison that we couldn't handle so to speak. But the uniqueness, we could never really capture or pinpoint.. The reviews online are decent. And it;s described as an Ancient Herbed beer... It has hints of an experimental batch of homebrew. But with a slightly better finish. I'm not sure we'll seek this one out but it was fun to try.
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I went by the same place that had TEN FIDY hidden away, still hiding away, with the same open space I left it with after I purchased a few.. Two of those, and the buzz is heavy all night.. It's a treat to sip on that beer... Sadly, this place doesnt seem to buy a new stock of items until their current stock is sold out. So I may have to buy up their entire stock of TEN FIDY if I want any chance at a 2013 fall release... SO we shall see.
I['m still stockpiling IPAs for a tasting. I hope I didn't do much harm as far as "hop freshness" since many were purchased in March '13... That heavy hitting tasting will be occurring any day now.