Boulevard Brewing Co.
Long Strange Tripel Belgian-Style Ale (Smokestack Series)
Tripel
Missouri
9.0%
12oz, 4-Pack
$11.99
Big, very delicate head, close to four fingers of off-white foam, so interwoven you hesitate to call them discrete bubbles, some dimpling before is slowly settles back down into more of a gentle wave, pleasing amount of stickiness in the lacing, broad streaks too. The liquid has a hazy golden yellow to apricot orange color, fierce amount of bubbles but dispersed and not in tight beads, seems to be some very fine particulate throughout. The nose starts off with a peppery burst before cinnamon, clove and allspice begin the sweetening, culminating in banana, peach, apricot, white grape and spiced orange peels, over time you also get toasted bread crust, pretzels with a white vinegar edge. In the mouth it’s full-bodied and thick, the carbonation creates a rich creaminess rather than refreshing briskness. Here the sour orange to white grapefruit citrus leads the pack leading into salt and pepper, clove, chamomile and bitter grasses, the latter welcome as a foil to the at times dried fruit sweetness in the apricot, apple, peach, pear, pineapple fruit, fairly tropical. On the clean side and not blatantly yeasty, its sourness keeps the palate tightening. The banana and bubblegum make a minor appearance at the end, retronasally and stronger as the beer warms. Great drinkability, no overt sense of its higher ABV.
5 out of 5