Boulevard Long Strange Tripel
It’s funny how we all go through phases in various aspects
of life. In everything from how busy you
are at work to what beers you end up with in the checkout line. Of late, I’ve been on a bit of a Belgian kick. I’m not entirely sure why, I suppose they
seem to compliment the changing leaves and dropping temperatures rather
well. I was hitting the double IPAs
pretty hard a few months ago, now it has been a lot of dubbels and tripels, and
who knows what the early throes of winter will bring?
Nevertheless, Boulevard’s Long Strange Tripel ended up in my
fridge recently. Even the bottle itself
is impressive, with a fun, trippy label.
There’s something I love about bottle conditioned beers with corks. It makes you feel like you’re opening
something really fancy, and honestly just kind of adds to the whole drinking
experience.
Observations: The Long Strange Tripel pours golden with a
robust white head, which dissipates fairly quickly. The nose is fruity with citrus being the
primary aroma. The first sip starts very
sweet and leads right in to tangerine and apricot flavors before drying out at
the finish. The mouthfeel is bubbly and
fairly light, which allows it to maintain a lot of sweetness without becoming
syrupy, as tripels occasionally do. The
alcohol burn at the end is really quite mild, hiding its true 9.2%
character. As it warms a bit, the fruit
flavors become more pronounced without the sweetness growing unbearable, making
it a really nice brew to spend an evening with.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one. I can’t say that everyone would like it, and
even for me it was a bit on the sweet side, but that is but a product of the
style and the Long Strange is still one of the best tripels I’ve had. I definitely recommend spending some time on
this one, both to fully get to know it and to keep that subtly high ABV at
bay. As the nights get colder though,
this one will make a great companion!
Cheers,
Jacob
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