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<strong>The Disgruntled Chemist</strong>

10/27/2007

Beer Blogging - Maredsous Triple

I haven't beer blogged in a while, mostly because grad school is keeping me busier than usual this month. Right now I'm sitting here staring at a draft of a paper I'm writing, wondering (a) how I'm going to finish it and (b) why I'm working on this instead of my dissertation. My solution: beer! Specifically, a Belgian beer. More specifically, Maredsous Triple, which looks a lot like this:



This beer is part of a 6-pack of these 750 mL bottles that was a birthday gift from my dad (along with an incredible bottle of scotch). Is that a wonderful gift, or what?

After pouring, I'd say that Maredsous Triple looks like your typical Belgian abbey ale. It's a nice golden color, not totally clear but not cloudy like a hefeweizen. There's a huge foamy head that bubbled up despite my best efforts to pour slowly, and after a minute it faded, leaving lace on the sides of the glass. The aroma is very malty, with some fruity notes.

The taste is simply delicious. Belgian triples are very strong beers, both in terms of flavor and alcohol content. This particular beer has 10% alcohol, making it basically like a bottle of wine, alcohol-wise. The taste, like the aroma, is mostly malty. There's a taste of apple and maybe a little of pear, and some honey behind that. The hops are mostly non-existent, which is actually good in a beer like this. Bitter citrus or floral flavors wouldn't fit in with the overall taste of the beer. As for the aftertaste, it's mostly that apple flavor sticking around, with a little bit of hops sneaking in. It's long but not too long, so there's a lot of temptation to drink this beer really fast. I'm resisting, though, because it's very tasty and I want to enjoy it.

I'd give this beer a rating of 9/10. If you like Belgian triples, this is an excellent example of the style that I would highly recommend. If you like other malty beers (like barleywines, for example), you should definitely give this one a shot if you can find it at your local purveyors of booze.

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