“Home made and home “bottled” beer from ‘Pakhuis, Antwerp, Belgium. Refermenation on bottle.”

Glassware: Trappist tulip.

Appearance: Quite dark for the style – kinda muddy rusted bronze with a firmly held thumb of creamy off white head on top. Good retention and a beautiful cascading lace down the sides of the glass.

Aroma: Mostly of semi sweet honeyed malts, caramel, earthy hops, orchard fruits and dough. But keeping with typical Belgian beer tradition there is a multitude of refined and more nuanced notes such as tangy orange citrus, herbals/florals, spice/esters, candied toffee and banana runts. A fairly impressive aroma from this unknown Belgian brewery.

Flavour: Well it’s nice and warming on this slightly chilly spring arvo. Definitely rich and sweet, caramelised malts, dough, buttery biscuits, mildly fruity i.e apple, pear and quince. Tasting the florals, rosewater, spicy herbals, banana, tangy orange etc through the mid then it all shifts into a somewhat dry, yeasty and fruity finish which draws out well.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, creamy and well rounded texture. Medium body, finely carbed. The 8.3% ABV is nicely tucked away.

Overall: Impressive Tripel from this largely unheard of Belgian brewery. Pretty close to conventional with just a few minor distinctions…which we liked, mind you. Solid offering.