Chimay Tripel (White) (Tripel, 8.00%)

Appearance: Chimay Tripel pours an opaque apricot orange tone along with a yellow-to-white crown of approximately 1 ½ inches of height that diminishes in a slow pace as small delicate bubbles rise to the surface.

Smell: Sweet scents of exotic fruits, namely, banana with yeasty notes and perhaps a touch of liquorice. Overall the aromas present themselves in a very round and gentle fashion.

Taste: Resonating to the smell we get some fruity and sweet notes of banana, yeast and a bitterness that is short but rather stingy.

Mouthfeel: Creamy, round and medium in body. Carbonation emerges in a satisfactory manner, i.e not blatantly overwhelming but fittingly refreshing and medium in strength.

Drinkability: As always with Chimay a great Trappist. However, I would find it a bit more pleasing if it were merely somewhat increased in viscosity.

Maredsous 6 – Blonde (Belgian Pale Ale, 6.00%)

Appearance: Maredsous 6 pours an amber-to-ochre colour along with a 2 inches tall and frothy, clear white head that diminishes to half its original size in, say 40 sec, and leaves plenty of lacing on the side of the glass.

Smell: A scent of yeast plus a sweet apricot is the dominant tone, perhaps some alcohol can be traced in the back along with some malt tones.

Taste: Modestly acidic at first then the somewhat sugary and fruitier tones start to bloom in the palate, along with the aforementioned yeast. It's finished off with a really dry, lingering aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: The carbonation tickles the tongue, so it is pretty rich, however not in an overwhelmingly strong manner. The viscosity is that of a creamy light-to-medium body.

Drinkability: I've had me a few, and so shall you! This is an OK Belgian Pale Ale, quite interesting primarily due to its aftertaste.

Maredsous 10 – Triple (Tripel, 10.00%)

Appearance: Maredsous 10 pours a darker shade of amber along with an airy crown consisting of huge bubbles which disintegrates rather quickly and leaves a cobweb-like lacing, all this along with plenty of visible carbonation.

Smell: Bubblegum-peach flavour, sweet yet not artificial to a disturbing degree, a sharp yeasty tone as well. Pretty basic 'n' simple yet qualitative.

Taste: A dry sweetness appears quite early and it lingers on and on and on and on throughout the tasting experience. Floral and fresh notes of hop comes through along with a slightly bitter aftertaste, hints of popcorn is traceable as well...

Mouthfeel: Alert carbonation strikes ones tongue and palate, it's definitely noticeable but not in a disturbing or overly dominating fashion. There is a fresh character which seems to substitute a near complete lack of bitterness and instead complements this with aforementioned abilities and a combination of a round and medium full body.

Drinkability: Highly enjoyable, rather complex, but greatly rewarding!

Pauwel Kwak (Beligan Strong Pale Ale, 8.10%)

Appearance: Pauwel Kwak pours a beautiful tone of mahogany along with an airy crown of a tone comparable to that of buffed leather. Alas, the monarchy is not of any longevity since the crown is reduced to the level of commoners in but a matter of seconds. Noble looks aside, plenty of rather big bubbles tend to fizzle like a soda pop on steroids whilst the entropy takes place in aforementioned crown.

Smell: A deep, sweet tone of cognac is the primary sensory input here, just the way I like 'em. Continually, we also get honey interacting with grape juice, some traces of butterscotch and leather may be scented as well.

Taste: First and foremost a cane sugar-like sweetness with burnt undertones comes forth along with a bitterness of distinct, and yet discrete character, giving a perplexing overall impression. Finally, and to a lesser extent, some sarsaparilla – or root beer for that matter – and hints of pear occasionally makes a visit on the palate.

Mouthfeel: A wee bit thin (light-to-medium full), creamy - almost oily in its consistency. The beer in question leaves the mouth with a considerably dry feeling afterwards and despite having a rather high level of alcohol (8,1%) it does a pretty good job keeping itself clandestine and only, once in a while, make itself heard as a warming aftertaste. Additionally, the lively carbonation in appearance faded rather quickly, leaving it, hypothetically, just like a soda pop, or anything for that matter, on steroids: all show, no go...

Drinkability: Sure, nice and complex with a lot of pretty unique traits, but a lot of small factors are missing to those traits, which all together simply end up leaving this one standing at the finish line of the "Superb brew Marathon". To clarify: there is absolutely nothing wrong with this "Belgian strong pale ale", it is in fact pretty good, its just that it exists a whole bunch of better ones out there so why necessarily choose this one?

La Trappe Tripel (Tripel, 8.00%)

Appearance: La Trappe Tripel pours a darker shade of orange-to-golden colour accompanied by a short, cream white crown, which under the duration of two minutes gradually dissolves into a top of sporadic bubbles, whereas plenty of carbonation is visible.

Smell: Fruity, notes of peach and hints of fresh citrus, not all that strong though...

Taste: A mild maltiness, a fresh character of the aforementioned peach comes forth pretty clear, the aftertaste consists of mostly bread-like and acrid notes.

Mouthfeel: Alert carbonation kicks it up a notch and brings a fresh touch. Medium-to-light in body, smooth and creamy.

Drinkability: Nice, however, quite simple and somewhat mellow for a tripel, yet very balanced and thus ever so pleasurable in the experience!

Valeir Extra (Belgian Pale Ale, 6.50%)

Appearance: Valeir Extra pours a gamboge, nectar-like colour along with a cream-toned crown, which spouts a decent posture of roughly 2" height. Plenty of micro-sized bubbles, which ascend like an, seemingly, ever flowing stream (soon to be flat) as the thick crown dissolves and leaves an opulent legacy of lacing.

Smell: Overall this one is quite the fruitcake since we get banana, floral hop notes, citrus, peach nectar, buttery (pie)dough and possibly oats or wheat for that matter.

Taste: Rather mild acridity slightly reminiscent to that of grapefruit (even when decantated completely the bitterness isn't all that noticeable), mellifluous characteristics of dried banana as notes of pineapple display an example of great persistence.

Mouthfeel: Light-to-medium, very smooth, the visibly all so strikingly high amount of carbonation detected is nowhere as evident as one would expect but it's still enough to give the beer a decently fresh result.

Drinkability: For a Belgian Pale Ale, all too anonymous, not bad by any means or measures, but it simply doesn't stand out from the Bishop's gathering...

Ommegang (Abbey Ale) (Dubbel, 8.50%)

Appearance: Ommegang Anno 2007 pours an opaque, grimy browner shade of burgundy (who would've guessed!) along with a frothy, fudge-to-cream white crown of medium height. Said crown accompanies the brew in question for a lengthy period of time (over 1½ minutes) before transgressing into infinite obscurity.

Smell: A deep scent of crème caramel greats the nostrils closely followed by the archetypical characteristic of cognac soaked plums, which is both enthralling with its sweetness as well as its pleasantly sophisticated touch of alcohol. Finally the whole thing is wrapped up in a butterscotch-package.

Taste: Slightly acidic at first, these citric notes however quickly subdues to the aforementioned, rich flavour of caramel. Alongside this malty backdrop we get the return of plums and sweetness finished off with a slightly dry aftertaste which brings to rise the late and – somewhat unexpected but nonetheless – welcome arrival of the mildly mannered Mr. Bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Full and creamy in body, rather timid in carbonation and yet at the same time, still bold enough to make the it an invigoration experience. The finish, corresponding to the bitterness in the aftertaste, is a dry one and due to the alcohol giving itself away, pleasingly warming.

Drinkability: Sadly this was my last last one, I've been saving it for quite some time now, and as you all know: the greater the wait, the greater the reward. Over the years that have passed since I first tried this Ommegang, it's certainly gotten more pronounced in the bitter areas (the same as with humani generis, I guess). Final line is, this beer holds everything you could expect from a genuine Trappist so if you can get a hold of this Yankee Doodle Brewski – go for it!