“You can drink these artisan high-fermentation abbey beers, which mature during their secondary fermentation in the bottle, at any time of the year. Open a Kapittel Blond for a summer barbecue and enjoy a Kapittel Winter over a meat fondue.”

Glassware: Trappist goblet.

Appearance: Slightly hazy honey-golden complexion. Lots of active Co2 streaming up to support the fizzy two and a bit finger head. Good retention and an absolute mess of lacing on the glass.

Aroma: Gorgeous wafts of sweet candi sugars and ripe mandarin lifting off. Candied orchard fruits mixing with the estery apple/pear, subtle hints of fairy floss, pot pourri-like florals, angostura bitters, banana runts, coriander and clove. Rich and brawny malt profile filling it all out too – honey, bread/crusts, some hay and straw. Exceptional aroma. Purely conventional Belgian tripel.

Flavour: It comes on a little slow but once it does the malts envelop the palate with rich honey and mild caramel, bread crusts and hay. The herbaceous hops provide a hint of bitterness and the estery yeast provides its hallmark spice, orchard fruits and candied banana. We’re getting a flutter of lemon zest and mandarin through the mid then into a relatively dry, spicy and herbal finish.

Mouthfeel: Smooth AF. Kinda creamy with a slightly lifted Co2. Medium bodied. The 9% ABV was extremely well hidden.

Overall: We’ve been eyeing this brewery off for some time now. We were unsure whether it’s a collaboration of Belgian breweries or singular. Turns out it is a singular brewery and they’ve been in operation for over 400 years. Cheers to that and cheers to this high quality tripel!