Hey! It’s the first joint beer review here at Barrels and Mash! For this one, Justin and Kris sat down with a bottle of Anthem’s Wild Brew Tripel. We got this bottle to review a couple days before our super fun Anthem Field Trip and finally got a chance to crack it open and take it for a spin. This was a pre-label bottle, which actually added a nice little bit of simplicity to the session, like we were drinking a friend’s home brew.
Basically what we did was talk this beer through as we were drinking, took some crude notes, then Justin solidified them into the review below, so it will be written from his perspective with our combined opinions and a rating that reflects the average of our individual scores. This format may evolve as we do more of these.
Disclaimer: This product was provided at no cost to Barrels and Mash with no strings attached.
Company: Anthem Brewing Company
Location: Oklahoma City, OK
ABV: 8.5%
Style/Description: Abbey Tripel
Price: $8 (22 oz bottle)
Appearance: Pours a cloudy copper, with light head and some lacing. Opaque with some straw colors near the edge of the glass.
Nose: Belgian esters leap out, banana and clove, perfume and florals with some caramel grain notes.
Taste: Banana bread and clove, fruity peaches. Vanilla, some spicy pepper and coriander. The malts are very sweet, cloyingly so, and drown out many of the more subtle flavors. Mouthfeel is thick and syrupy, much too much for the style. This tastes under attenuated, though some booze warms you up on the way down.
Finish: Long sticky banana and malt finish, with some boozy notes and warmth.
Overall: Not a bad brew, if I was judging this in a competition it would be pretty seriously docked for style. This brew is thick and sweet when tripels are generally dry and well attenuated. I was definitely expecting a different brew when I popped the cap on this one. That being said, this beer is quite a bit more successful as a Belgian Strong Ale or even a quad. I’ve had it several times now and enjoyed it, but I’ll be cellaring a bottle hoping it dries out a bit.
Rating: 2.5/5
