Rampant rabbit

Bit of a gusher, the Fort Lapin Tripel, bounding out of the bottle to form an ice-white layer of foam over a dark orange body. It smells juicer than your average tripel, with strong notes of jaffa and mandarin. Bunny hops.

It comes on a little hot and heavy on tasting: I detect some aftershave in there, cedar and pine, and a bready weight. Belgian brewers, I'm led to believe, strive to avoid this kind of density in their beers and it's a principal reason behind their use of sugar. A glance at the label of Fort Lapin confirms that it's all malt -- something I don't think I've encountered in a Belgian tripel before.

Between the ripe fruit aroma and the earthy spice in the flavour I think there's enough going on here to carry the weight of the overall beer. I don't imagine there are too many punters who find most tripels lacking in substance, but if you're one of them, this may be the beer you're looking for.