St. Feuillien Tripel

St. Feuillien Tripel.

8.5 % ABV. Brasseries St. Feuillien, Le Roeulx, Belgium. 

The beers of the Brasserie St. Feuillien have appeared six times here in the Nib. Grisette, Grand Cru, Wit, Saison, Speciale, and a collaboration with the Green Flash brewery called Biere de L'amitie. But not the Triple. Did I never tap a keg of it between December of 2010 and when I left the Blue Nile in April of 2014? Possible, but it seems unlikely. Perhaps it just slipped my mind when I had it on tap, and didn't use the opportunity to enter it here. Just doesn't seem like me, though.

So, some bottles showed up at the store I work at now, only 4 packs of 11.2's, for $20 I 'd rather pick up a bomber for $10. But that's okay. It reminds me of the time back in March of 2003 when a distributor rep gave me a bomber of this triple from a brewery I hadn't even heard of before then. I wrote the following words for BeerAdvocate.com and gave it 4.5 out of 5, a fell 12.8% higher than the average. I guess I must have really liked it. 

Clear golden hue, and a towering, fantastic, huge white head. 

Aroma is gorgeous and spicy, with citrus and honey notes. So far, it's a perfect profile for a tripel without even taking a taste.

And, that taste? Divine! Utterly lovely, light, buouyant, with a dazzling hop prominence at first, and a good touch of graininess in the texture. Sweet, light, and scrumptious, and the sugar starts to take prominence here in the middle.

An utterly unreproachable tripel, and a complete delight. Top-notch tripel, beautiful beer.

After 18 years, do I still like it? Yeah, a lot. Just the same and more. And I'm trying to figure out how we can get the young beer geek crowd into Belgian tripels, instead of thinking the only things worth drinking are over-fruited marshmallow sours and DDH DIPAs. There's got to be a way. Beers this delicious should not be ignored. How did the love of Belgians seemingly skip a generation? Something's wrong here, people, and it's got to be fixed. 

This beer has a white, smooth and very compact head. Its pale amber colour is very characteristic revealing a distinctive maltiness. It has a rich aroma with a unique combination of aromatic hops, spices and the typical bouquet of fermentation – very fruity. Secondary fermentation in the bottle gives it a unique aroma due to the presence of yeast. St-Feuillien Triple has a very strong and exceptionally lingering taste thanks to its density and its long storage period. Whether served as a refreshing aperitif in summer or savoured during the winter months, the Triple is a connoisseur’s beer par excellence.