Oi, lightweight

This large bottle of St Hubertus Tripel Blond was foisted upon me during my last visit to Belgium. The brand is Carlsberg's take on Belgian beer, and I've not been impressed by others in the range. The bottle bears only the address of their Belgian distributor so I don't know where it's actually brewed; the wire cage snapped before I could twist it open; and it's only 7.2% ABV, so this had a hill to climb before even the first sip.

It looks more like a blonde ale than a tripel, being pale gold and almost completely clear, topped by an inconsiderate amount of foam. The aroma is blonde too: light on esters, with a hint of citrus and flowers, plus a minimal level of Belgian spicing. Before the flavour, the fizz. Tripel does tend to be gassy, but here the relatively light body makes the high carbonation busy and intrusive. Given time to settle... there's not much there. The bitterness is an aspirin or zinc twang which would be harsh if it were more pronounced, but here is merely an annoyance. I will give it the floral sweet side, however: that's undeniably pleasant, if unsophisticated. It doesn't last long, however, and it's back to the much louder aspirin and fizz after a mere moment.

I did my best not to let my prejudices affect my review of this one, but it's simply, objectively, not a good beer. It doesn't have the correct heft and complexity for a tripel, and doesn't even work as a strong blonde ale, lacking the crisp drinkability that the best ones exhibit. I reckon the gravity is the prime factor in its failure. 7.2% ABV may have seemed generous at the office in Copenhagen or Stockholm or wherever this was dreamed up. It's too light for Belgium, however, and completely inadequate to carry the bittersweet complexity that this attempts to pull off.