Essential Westmalle Triple
A Trappist beer is brewed within an abbey and under the control of Cistercian monks, familiarly called Trappists. There are currently only seven monasteries in the world that produce beer eligible to be labelled as an “Authentic Trappist Product” (ATP). Westmalle is one of them.
Here I tried a Triple, which originally meant that this beer contains three times more malt than the Simple - reserved for the monks. According to Michael Jackson the “Westmalle Tripel” is the classic example of the style.
It’s a clear, golden-yellow beer that undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle. In spite of its enormous popular success, we understand at the first sip that this is a complex and powerful beer. The typical aroma of yeast immediately emerges, yet is still very nuanced. In my opinion, this is one of the most balanced beers I’ve ever tasted. I said “complex,” but there’s no doubt that this is an easy beer to like — so elegant, so attractive!