Sunday, August 9, 2009

Flying Dog Brewery's Kerberog Tripel

A Belgian tripel by Flying Dog. I'm expecting this to be a perfect storm of meh. You know I don't like Belgians too much, but I'm not sure if I've mentioned my lack of respect for Flying Dog, since I tried their beers before I began this blog but haven't had once since. That should tell you something, I guess. It was the Steadman art that got me to bite (pardon the pun), but it wasn't enough to keep me around. This came in one of my beer of the month club packages, so although I'm not wild about the brewery I have to admit I've never seen it and I'm glad to have a shot at it.

Pours deep yellow with a huge pillowy tan head, with good carbonation that's some of the slowest I've ever seen in a beer. The slow rise of the bubbles belies the clarity of this beer, and indicates that it may actually have some body despite what looks like more filtration than I've ever seen in a tripel.

Huh. Good, malty smell. Not the usual plastic or chemical smell that I'm used to in a tripel. It's malty, a bit floral. Difficult to tell if the floral smell comes from any amoutn of hops, or if it's a byproduct of the higher than average malt. Looks and smells like a heavier, maltier, golden ale.

It has an odd, hollow, cardboard bitterness that I notice more than anything right up front, which makes it taste like a stronger golden ale. Like adjuncts. Cheap. It fades quickly to an alcohol bite, and all of that malt disappears quickly. The bitter harshness just isn't right for the type.

I get three of each type of beer with my BOTM package from this club, and I will definitely be giving the other two of these away.

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