Garr's Tripel Belgian Style Ale

Garr's Red ale wasn't a big hit with me, but that doesn't rule them out. I mean, it was close, and they clearly want to try, don't they? Well, if they want to try, I want to help them out by trying their beer (although, to be honest, I have put this one off for a while). There may just be something about their dour can design that makes me not want to try it, but beer can overcome bad labels.

She's a cool amber color with a white head that has no stickiness about it, and it runs almost completely away right from the get-go. The patchy layer on top is joined by a ring of bubbles around the sides, as a good, well-behaved beer is wont to do. The aroma is malt-centric, but it's kind of a twigs-and-earth malt. It has citrus trying to offset it, but they aren't overpowering the malt.

First sip is a whole lot more fruits than malt. It is mangoes and passion fruit up front with a kind of earth back end that is not really doing all that much other than hanging around. Aside from that, this really seems like a simple beer. To the swig!

Tip-in is those tropical fruits with carbonation barely tingling anything in the mouth. The middle is an acidic scrape across the top of the mouth while the bottom turns bitter and tart with the fruit being joined by the twigs and earth. The finish is a breeze of tart fruit rind before sweetness on the lips as it trails off.

Bottom Line: It's Belgian enough to be solid, but it needs more character to be great.

2.5/5