Lefebre Brewery/Abbaye de
Floreffe
Quenast, Belgium
Sighted at: Table and Vine,
Northampton, MA
Abbaye de Floreffe, a monastery with a
brewing tradition dating
back to 1221 now has their beers produced at
the local Lefebre
Brewery.
Tripel - Grand Cru
Aah... the continental blend of Hallertau
and Styrian hops...
First off, this is not a beer for those
uninitiated to the
storage and serving of fine beers and wines.
Every bottle that
I have sampled has a significant amount of
yeast and other sediment
in the bottle, and unless stored properly,
handled gently and
decanted gingerly, you will end up with a large
amount of flaky
yeast in your mouth (not that I mind, but if
you're not used to
it...)
After decanting (preferably into a ceramic
pitcher to maintain
the temperature), the light bread-like nose
could be detected
from almost a full foot away. Even with careful
decanting, the
beer grew a large tight white head. This beer
is a perfect example
of a Tripel style beer: golden yellow color,
honey taste and a
light hop crispness afterwards. The honey
taste is so prevalent
that for a moment I could have almost
imagined that this was a
honeywine or mead... but the hops did shock
me back into reality.
Sweet, thirst quenching and completely
enjoyable.
(Avery Glasser)
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