Bullfrog Tripel Trubbel

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 7

A soft pour produces an almost three-finger thick, pale tan colored head in my 25cl tulip glass. As I pour this solid fruit aromatics of ripe pear, apple, over-ripe honeydew and some tropical fruit notes greet my nose. The beer is a amber color that shows a lightly hazed, orange tinged, straw-gold color when held up to the light. A deeper inspection of the aroma confirms the dominant fruit notes but there is also notes of black pepper, earthy coriander and over-ripe, not quite rotting ginger in the finish. Actually the over-ripe, not quite rotting description is a good one for the fruit character here in the nose as well. As my nose becomes accustomed to the fruit some spicy, phenolic notes of clove. Despite my somewhat off putting descriptors of the nose, I am really enjoying the aroma of this beer.

The beer is somewhat sweet tasting, but much of this is accentuated by the fruit esters found in this beer, it is also a touch tart which really adds a nice touch to the overall flavor profile. Fruit flavors of tart / ripe pear, star fruit, musk melon (so much more apt than cantaloupe here). There is a definite hint of mustiness here as well, something a bit like a sweet mushroom note, perhaps a bit like a moldy shoe lace (not quite moldy socks, but near there). There beer gets more fruit laden as the beer warms up with a concentrated, pear like note coming to the fore. The finish has a nice peppery, spicy ginger, lingering turpene piquancy, slightly herbal / grassy note and a touch of a hop bitterness to it all of which contribute to a nice bite towards the end of each sip. this has a certain richness to it with a velvety texture, but it is not overly heavy; it is perhaps a bit heavier than I would like a Tripel to be. The sweetness that is here is really well masked by the spiciness and the tartness.

I really like the character that this has picked up during fermentation; the ample esters, phenolics and spiciness is actually quite a bit more characterful than any Tripel I can remember having. At times this really has me thinking I am biting into a ripe, tart melon of some sort. This is quite interesting and quite the enjoyable beer.