Dark horse Sapient Trip Ale

Brewery: Dark Horse Brewing Co.
Location: Marshall, MI
Style: Tripel
Brewery Website
Rating: B

Today we are tasting the Dark Horse Serpent Trip Ale. The beer pours up a hazy, deep gold color with lots of sediment and a short white head. The nose has lots of yeasty ester notes of banana and circus peanuts along with sweet spice notes of cinnamon and cardamom.

The palate leads off with wheaty malt notes, followed by a squirt of acidity. There are more yeast ester notes, but not as potent as the nose hinted at. The hops has a notable bite with citrus notes, but it really plays a support role here. The Serpent Trip Ale has a light-to-moderate bodied mouthfeel. The alcohol pairs with a fine fizz to leave a bit of a tingling sensation on the tongue. The finish finds a lingering hops bite with yeast and some light malt notes.

The Dark Horse Serpent Trip Ale is a nice tripel, although it is a bit on the light side. This drinks like an amped-up weissbier with an interesting hops character. Belgian Tripel and weissbier fans would do well to check this one out.

Duvel Tripel Hop

Today, Beer! reviews the sensational Duvel Tripel Hop: 

Brewery: Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat

Location: Breendonk-Puurs, Belgium

Style: IPA

Brewery Website

Rating: A+

Today we bring you something special, the Duvel Tripel Hop. Duvel is widely regarded as one of Belgium's best breweries, and the Tripel Hop is rather novel for a Belgian brewery. This beer is an infusion of a distinctly American-style hop-forward IPA with a traditional Belgian-style ale. The Tripel Hop is cloudy, honey-gold in color with a white, clumpy-foam head. The nose has fruity/citrus and spicy hops along with a background note of yeast.

On the palate there is a nice spicy (black pepper) hops note. The yeast and malt lead to some cherry and wine notes. Citrus/grapefruit hops make themselves known. The bitter hops show up eventually, but take a while to shine through the juicy malt. There is also some woodiness and a hint of sweetness. The Duvel Tripel Hop has a medium-heavy body and is on the juicy side. The finish has citrus and spice along with lingering juicy notes.

When a brewery the caliber of Duvel takes on a beer such as this, good things almost always happen. The Tripel Hop is no exception. This is a fantastic combination of IPA-meets-tripel, and Belgium-meets-US craft brew. The end result is the best of both worlds. This beer is juicy, rich and loaded with complex hops flavors and aromas. Well worth every penny, this is truly an exceptional beer.