Origin: U.S.A.
Type: Abbey style triple
Color: Dark orange
Alcohol content: 10%
Recommended serving temperature: 10ºC/50ºF
Brewery: Anderson Valley Brewing Company
I
decided today that it was high time I dedicated a post to what is probably up to now my
favorite triple among those brewed outside of Belgium and the Netherlands,
Brother David’s Triple.
I
first tried this beer a year or two ago, spurred by a certain sense of
adventure. I had really liked all of the beers brewed by Anderson Valley
Brewing Co. I had tried up until then, all of them, it is true, more
traditional US varieties (such as the first post of an IPA in this blog, the
Anderson Valley Hop Ottin’), and thought it was time to see how they did with
something distinctly European.
Brother
David’s Triple is a dark orange colored triple, which clearly looks the part when
you pour it. Like any good triple, it comes out hazy and with foam of a
champagny consistence. The foam however is not all that abundant and is pretty
quick to reduce, leaving behind a very thin coating on the surface.
It
smell is primarily sweet, giving out a touch of caramel accompanied with soft citric
fruits. These fruits are hard to exactly pinpoint given their moderate
intensity by comparison to the sweetness. If I had to give names, I would say
it would probably be orange, given the lack of acidity, but then again this may
just be masked by the overpowering sweetness.
There
are also certain faint spice smells which come to cloud the sweet fruity aromas
initially appearing, which Anderson Valley calls clover honey. This keeps in with the traditional aromas of this type of beer and comes to reinforce
the distinctly triple like character already observed in the appearance.
The
flavors in your mouth once you drink it are pretty much in keeping with the
aromas described, again dominated by the sweetness, especially at the
beginning. This pretty much drowns out any taste of the citrus fruits, instead
giving out a less zesty taste, reminding me more of white fruits and herbs,
which is still accompanied by the clover spicy taste that common in abbey style
beers. This probably makes this beer a little bit less refreshing, but also
helps to balance the sweetness toning down the intensity of flavors.
This
relatively soft and smooth balancing of the sweetness with white fruits and
herbs is a welcome feeling, given that a mix of a stronger citrus flavor and
the sweetness would probably have made for an explosion of flavor, making this
beer a little too intense.
This
intensity would have also been helped on by the alcohol, which slowly installs
itself in your mouth and stays there until the end, giving you a nice warm end
flavor. This feeling however was not displeasing at all to me, subdued as it is
by the rest of the flavors and giving away the last missing trait of abbey
style triples, an impressive ABV, which, as I have often said, to me gives these
beers some character.
And
that is precisely what Brother David’s Triple has so much of.
The
US made strong golden ales I had tried until then were all pretty mellow, they
were lacking something. They had the taste more or less right, but were it due
to state laws limiting the ABV in craft beer or for other reasons, the alcohol
content was generally closer to 5%. This did not mean that they were bad beers,
not at all. However if you had ordered them relying on the description,
expecting a European style strong golden ale, you were in for an unpleasant
surprise. In one word, they were less European and more Euro-pee.
This
is why seeing that Brother David’s Triple ranked in at 10%ABV, I was overcome
by the urge for adventure and decided to give it a run for its money, an
impulse I have not regretted.
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