Tiger Tripel

Nøgne Ø Tiger Tripel, when I had this beer it was only fair to judge it with other tripel beers I have tasted that were brewer outside of Belgium, one cannot compare this beer with tripel beers that have hundreds of years of tradition behind them. Poured a cloudy golden orange hazy colour and had a nice white head with plenty of lacing. The beer had a citrusy fruit nose, apples, banana, coriander and a little tartness, and strong hints of Belgian yeast, just like a typical Belgian beer. Medium bodied with a mild sweetness so I am not sure why the bartender said this beer was very sweet and high on alcohol. Obviously this person had never tried the beer as the alcohol was high be greatly hidden and I did not find it sweet at all, in the beginning it was a tad sweet but this quickly disappeared. Quite an intense flavour to this beer, yeast, apple fruitiness, light spices and some sugar which probably comes from the sweetness of the wheat.

Like many Belgian beers, the aroma here had some significant spice to it with fruity esters with some clove like tones. Slightly citrus like you get from oranges but did have some banana character which is very typical to this style. As for the flavour, a marriage of spices, fruitiness and some alcohol is the norm all joined together by a nice backbone of malt and wheat in this case. Hops were there but more to the back of this beer as the bitterness was quite low and more in the after-taste. The light colour and body are usually achieved in Belgian tripel beers by using Pilsner malt and up to 20% white sugar, with the most common tripel hops being the noble one such as Styrian Goldings. I really likes this attempt of a Belgian Tripel by Nøgne Ø, for me I would not be able to pick this out in an tripel blind tasting as being a brew done outside of Belgium, the aroma was great, 9% alcohol very well hidden which made it very easy to drink as it had a medium body also. The aroma and flavours were typical to this still and as Nøgne Ø are already the masters of unpasteurized/filters beers, this was a great plus to have for such a style of beer.