Unibroue La Fringante

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Hazy glowing brown with zero cap...... I mean not one single bubble lasted more then five seconds after the pour. Yep smells like Unibroue! Yeast, apple, ginger, lemon, and so on, and so on............ fairly mild really. Taste is good, real good! Big ginger, lemon, woody malts, nice and yeasty, and all is well with the taste. No trace of any alcohol, very sweet finish, vanilla shows up to. Beer is turning into a big apple bomb. Good carbonation, warms the stomach, I feel happy now..........YAAAAA 10% beer!!

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

Pours a huge bubbly head but quickly dissipates and leaves a very thin layer. Ok lacing. Has a cloudy amber appearance with sediments clearly visible. Aromas are of citrus hops, some yeasty notes with mild spices and mild malts. Has a strong bitter citrus flavour, notes of coriander and orange peel. Some spices, mildly sour. Has a bit of tartiness. Bready malts. Full bodied mouthfeel with a slight tingling, nice warming feeling. Lively carbonation. Sort of a thick yeasty feeling on the palate. The 10%abv is not really noticeable at first. Goes down fairly easy. Pretty good stuff.

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

Bottled. Hazy golden colour with mediumsized white head. Aroma is malts, some citrus fruits, yeast, spices and quite much earthy notes. Flavour is caramel malts, citrus fruits, yeast, spices and some mild wooden notes. Alcohol shows as a slight burning note. Overall a very nicely balanced Belgian Strong.

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

The dominant flavour on this beer is the unique Unibroue yeast. It pours a hazy golden-brown and the aroma is yeast, sweet malt, and spicy tones. The flavour is similar to the aroma with the malts coming through with a yeasty finish.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Sampled bottle, RBNAG 2007 in Grimstad. ABV was 10%. Pale golden colour, floaties in the bottle. Moderately spicy aroma, a bit "unfresh". Nice flavour, spicy. Warming mouthfeel.

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

Pours out in a hazy golden colour with a sticku white head. Dry and yeasty aroma of white bread, spices and apricot. Dry flavour of yeast and spices with sweet undertones of apricot and candied oranges. Dry and spicy aftertaste with strong carbonation. Sweet notes of oranges and cinnamon.

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

Another slick silk screened Unibroue bottle, corked & caged. Pours a cloudy yellow with fair carbonation. First glance and sip - nothing overly impressive. Good example of this tripel style. Fairly moderate flavour and aroma. Some citruisy notes, Blegian hops in the smell. Some spice. Slight tangy notes in the flavour. Maybe a pinch of alcohol in the finish but overall quite well hidden. A little light bodied but tasty. A very well done and enjoyable, though not overly impressive beer.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

07.10.05 750ml bottle dated 03.11.2004, FF, RBSG tour. Clouded golden. Big but quickly fading off-white head. Excellent example of Uni-house character at its best. Sweet, fruity, honey, pear, floral. Lingering yeast and some funk. Mineral, salty, river water. Finishes abruptly and sort of unusually.

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

This is a cloudy gold with a good white head. There are lots of esters and phenols, almost like an unspiced witbier. Really bubbly. It has a clean finish and only a little alcholic heat. Not a big flavor, but a good one.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

My distinct and rather overwelming first (and lasting) impression of this was, "Haven't they already done this exact beer a couple times before?" That is to say, unless my taste buds are serious out-of-whack, I'd swear this was a near-clone of the Unibroue 10's and 11's a year or two ago.

Now, mind you, that is *not* a bad thing. No, not at all. If the world was filled with more Unibroue 10 and 11 clones, and less anonymous tasting macro-schwills, think of how good life would be? But I digress....

Poured with a big, white, fluffy head of foam, but one of which that did not last too long. Yellow-ish body, with perhaps hints of orange.

Classic "Big Unibroue Beer" aroma -- kinda sweet, kinda spicy, perhaps a litte estery, etc. Nothing too surprising with this beer so far.

Ditto for the flavor. I mean, I enjoyed this, and went well on a quiet Sunday night hanging out with my wife and the "kids", watching DVDs. I would have liked this Tripel make a bit more of an impression, as far as the "spiciness" goes, but still, tasty indeed.

But..., I could never put aside the distinct impression of having had this many times before. Just like it seems how Taco Bell will release "new" products using the exact same four ingredients over and over, that was how I envisioned this beer. Tasty..., but not really distinct enough from all of the other Belgian Strong Pale Ales etc from Unibroue.
//TB