Hardywood Peach Tripel
The Belgian tripel is a beer style that typically brings a good bit of fruit character to the tastebuds via the yeast strains employed. Virginia’s Hardwood Park decided to up the fruit flavors by refermenting a triple on 50+ pounds per barrel of peaches, apricots and nectarines — thus creating their Peach Tripel.
The only thing is, I just couldn’t get into it. Peach Tripel has a good bit of stone fruit character and solid yeast traits, but it just didn’t get me all that excited over what it had to offer. It comes across as sort of a softly carbonated fruit drink — and that works as a Summer refresher, but not so much in a tripel. I really wanted to like this beer more than I did. It’s not bad by any means and I’m sure there will be people that really, really like it. Me? I’d rather sit down with a couple cans of their Capital Trail.
Appearance
The brew pours a pale, hazy straw in color with a dense cap of white foam.
Aroma
Yeast, grain, soft peach and a touch of alcohol mingle gently in a rather subdued aroma.
Taste
There’s plenty of peach and yeast to be had here as a gentle tartness tingles the sides of the tongue. There’s a bit of light spices in the background along with grain notes. The beer goes down easy with the soft carbonation, finishing dry with a slight warmth.
Overall
Peach Tripel isn’t a bad beer. With it’s fruit-forward nature and soft carbonation, it reminds more of a shandy, I suppose. It’s refreshing and light, but not tripel-y as I was hoping for. Still, I’m sure many bottles of this beer will be drained throughout the remaining Summer months. I’ll simply opt for one of their brews that suits my tastes better.
Rating: 3.25/5
