Tallgrass Brewing Company Velvet Rooster
What the brewers say
“This Belgian tripel is smooth and care- fully crafted like a fine velvet painting, but with an 8.5 percent ABV, this bird has some spurs. This beer has a floral nose and a candy-like sweetness.”
What our panel thought
Aroma: “Shy aroma doesn’t leap out of the glass, but what does emerge includes banana, honeydew, pears, grassy hops, and the slightest wisp of spice, but not to the level of most tripels. Light sweet malt.”
Flavor: “A more robust than usual malt foundation includes some faint caramel notes, Belgian yeast phenolics (green pepper and some plastic), and esters (banana and apples) deliver in the middle, along with a bit of grassiness, leading to a long finish that starts dry but suggests a bit of sweetness at the end. A warming alcohol presence, but carbonation is good. Some floral hops character and a significant bitterness. The phenols are responsible for some of that, but there’s a lot of hops there, too.”
Overall: “The individual components are there, but they don’t form a perfectly cohesive unit. An inherently drinkable beer that’s stylistically more of a Belgian specialty than a tripel.”
