Tripel Karmeliet Beer Review - Award Winning Belgian Beer
One hazy night in Stockholm led me to this great discovery. Like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I’d found my golden ticket. A once in a lifetime discovery brought on by sheer chance. This was a beer I’d never heard of before, never even seen in the UK before and I certainly didn’t expect to be drinking it in Sweden.
Tripel Karmeliet is an abbey style blonde beer brewed by Brouwerij Bosteels in Buggenhout. Similar in style to other belgian abbey beers that are more well known such as Leffe Blonde Beer, which you can read our review on here. The Brewery was founded in 1791, making it older than belgium itself. It’s been in the hands of the family for over 200 years and relies today on that history, guided by the craftmanship of 7 generations. The Bosteels Brewery is the heart of the village and it’s importance to the town cannot be overshadowed. It’s importance is resonated by the fact that 3 of the 7 generations have been town mayor at some point.
The Bosteels brewery only produce a small number of beers, but as the saying goes, quality over quantity. The brewery produce the following products:
Tripel Karmeliet 8.4% ABV
DeuS 11.5% ABV
Pauwel Kwak 8.4% ABV
Tripel Karmeliet has won many awards since it’s inception in 1996. It won the best pale ale award in 2008 Which caused demand to skyrocket, with many pubs unable to get enough delivered. To meet this new demand, production was increased by 30%. Additionally, Tripel Karmeliet won gold in 1998 and silver in 2002 in the “Best Belgian-Style Tripel” category of the World Beer Cup.
The Tripel Karmeliet beer has a very unique flavour, this in part comes from it’s use of 3 cereals: wheat, oats and barley. It’s brewed according to a recipe from 1679. The beer pours with a dark amber colour with a plenty of dense head. Tripel Karmeliet is spectactulalry complex and upon sniffing, one can expect to find notes of banana, yeast, marmalade, orange, honey and apricot. The flavour brings the tastes promised by the aroma. Fruity, yeasty and utterly delectable. Upon drinking, one can expect to find all the previously mentioned notes along with notes of sweet toffee and pineapple. The beer is far from bitter but equally far away from being too sweet.
Tripel Karmeliet is a wonderfully complex beer thats carefully pieced together by generations of experience. I couldn’t reccomend this beer enough, it’s utterly mesmerising. But be wary; This strong beer certainly creeps us on you and it left by brain wanting more, but my body wanting less.
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You can read more about the Bosteels Brewery on their website here.