Ahh yes, one of my favorite beers. Word to the wise....nearly anything Unibroue makes (outside of their fruit flavored stuff) is good. As far as North American breweries that make a large amount of traditional Belgian-style beers......Unibroue might be the best. Better yet, they are becoming easier and easier to find, as I generally buy mine at Dierberg's grocery stores in the St. Louis area. Also, it's generally a lot cheaper than the authentic belgians, as a 750ml bottle can usually be found for around 7 bucks, and a 4 pack for around 10 bucks. Finally, I try to use this as a sort of "gateway beer" when I want to get someone to step up from good beer, to high level Belgian ales. You'll freak someone out if you give them this after they've been sucking down Bud Light Lime for awhile, but if a person can stomach real beer, especially wheats, have them step up and give this a shot.
I usually do the 750ml bottles for Belgians, but my circumstances required me to settle for a four pack of 12oz bottles. Cool bottle with La Fin Du Monde on the label (meaning: "end of the world"). Bottle says 9% abv and I'm pouring it into a La Chouffe tulip as the bottle has a picture recommending a tulip shaped glass. (A lot of good beers will have a picture of both the glassware that should be used, as well as the proper serving temperature) I'm serving this at around 45 degrees F. Beer Advocate calls this a "tripel", but I think it might just be a "belgian strong ale", as I find a lot of tripels to be a touch more bitter than this. But calling it a tripel isn't completely retarded.
Pours a real cloudy, orangy-golden color. A 2 finger white head comes in but goes back quickly to a decent soapiness. Pretty good amount of bubbles as well. Very murky beer. Looks almost chewy......which is a good thing. There's certainly sediment in this beer, but I haven't poured any of it out into the glass, yet.
Smell is citrus, lemon zest, orange juice, and bubble gum like you'd find in a wheat. From the look and the first smell, you'd almost think this was a wheat beer. There's a touch of spice in there, apparently they brew it with coriander, which may give it that spiciness. This is why I wouldn't call it a "tripel" as all this sweetness isn't usually found. No alcohol in the nose.
First drink is bubbly, citrusy, heavy and chewy, and with more of a booze presence than you get in the smell. It starts with a sharp, refreshing carbonation on your tongue, then you get a bit of an orange peel sensation on the middle of your tongue....but that doesn't last very long. The "chewiness" comes next with a nice, heavy dose of malt on the sides of your tongue, and you get a nice warming booze in the finish. The spice (coriander) is in the aftertaste for me. It's way too heavy and high in abv to be "refreshing", but it does have a certain crispness to it, that probably comes from the carbonation and the nice spice at the end. As it gets a bit warmer the orange starts to turn into a touch of lemon. There is a touch of dryness with the alcohol in the finish, but there isn't a ton of bitterness or hop presence. The hops are there in the background no doubt, but that's not the point of this beer.
This is a very very tasty beer. There are a lot of fun little subtleties in it, and you almost forget that it's a really top notch, well crafted beer whenever I drink it, due to the fact that it's becoming easier to find and it's reasonably priced. For top notch golden Belgian ales (tripel or not) it's hard not to put this among some of the top notch ones, even the authentic ones. This is well thought out, well crafted beer that's complex enough to be fun to drink, but never overwhelming. For having a ton of malt, they don't try to hide the sweetness, but keep it reasonable with letting you get different sensations of citrus, banana, wheat, and top it off with a present but balanced alcohol.
Me likey.
Verdict: 8.5/10
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