Others have said it here and i think this is an especially context dependent beer. If you go to the bar, having been out elsewhere already for beers, on a cold rainy september afternoon with good company, de garre is wonderous. Its also variable from batch to batch, so maybe you got a bad batch like you say when you went. You also went with the contex of people saying "best triple ever" which it then has to live up to. Glad you gave it a second chance!
Love de Garre - both the bar and the beer. Last time I was there in June we went straight from the station hauling our suitcases up the stairs, and had one before then splashing out on a bottle of the Bourbon barrel-aged version. A great start to a great weekend.
FYI they also have a barrel aged vintage. It is not on the menu; you have to request it at De Garre. One of those best kept secrets that most who visit De Garre are not aware of.
Just a thought, perhaps you could homebrew a Belgian Triple. I would recommend trying to brew one using the BJCP guidelines. Then do a side-by-side flight of commercial triples with you homebrewed version. That would be excellent content for your channel.
Went to uni in Bruges and adored this place. One of my favourite Belgian beer glasses. They had a limit on how many of their tripels you can have and after a few of these you would be far gone. Beautiful and classic venue, apparently at one time it was a candle makers place. Every visit to Brugge I must go here.
Love this - love that you tried the recommendation of people in your comments and gave an honest review - nice work! Maybe they just hadn't cleaned their lines the day you tasted it!
Went to bruges recently and had de garre. What a great environment and the tripel was good but not extraordinary. What i did love was the unfiltered brugse zot at De Halve Mann!
I just checked my untappd. I've checked in only 12 tripels, but realistically I've had more than that, and Tripel De Garre is my top rated one with a personal rating of a 4.5. That was had at a tap room outside of LA last November. My sister and brother in law went to De Garre in Belgium last summer and also loved it and to them it was just a really good tripel having it from the source. I should also add that I got this beer not knowing it was the highest rated tripel. I just saw a beer I had never seen before and was in the mood for a tripel so I got a pour of it.
Hey I mean beer is very subjective, like all taste. It is a great beer, but not as good as we were lead to believe... but the fact we were led might have something to do with that!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Definitely agree. Whenever I do any homebrew judging, it's always interesting what traits someone else perceives that I don't sense at all.
I loved my trip to Bruges in 1998. Developed my love for Belgian beer there, esp. Chimay. Still have my Bruges coffee service and obligatory lace brought home in our suitcase. I don't remember De Garre but 98 was a long time ago... Great video! Cheers!
I had De Garre at De Garre in October last year. We shared a table with a couple of locals (the one near the stairs that looked a bit like you were going to sit at). They very strongly recommended the Tripel De Garre and were drinking it themselves. It was a great experience. They were explaining to us that Flemish speaking Belgians were much nicer than the French speakers. They claimed most Flemish speakers spoke French, but the French speakers mostly didn't 'bother' to learn Flemish. Just checked my Untapped scores (I know) and De Gare @ De Gare got a 4.25, Westmalle @ Cafe Trappisten got 4.75 a few days later.
Spent many happy hours in there, love both the beer, and the place. They do play Classical Music, they did in October 2023 the last time, I was in there.
"Plus you can't really get it anywhere, except for Belgian Cafe in Bruges" - Actually, I just had it yesterday on tap in a belgian pub here in Prague. Apparently they have it on tap fairly often. It was amazing.
Westmalle tripel for me is the first beer on my list at a bar in Oostende then the sweet shop beer world is open , My absolute favorite Belgium beer is a blonde called Papegaei brewed out of Diksmuide, If you can get this well worth a go.... its my epiphany beer that years ago changed my view of Beer. long story ....... another great video well done
I had to check my Untappd checkin for de Garre. Appartently I've had it, but wasn't particularly impressed. My top 3 of Belgian tripels: Straffe Hendrik Tripel Westmalle Chimay (White)
I think Brad nailed it when he said he mentioned it was better from the bottle than on draft. I was thinking maybe the beer needed some sort of bottle conditioning? Dirty lines was a good one too! Didn't think of that one.
If the beer presented more rounded from the bottle, could it be that belgian ales and bottle conditioning are meant to go hand in hand? And I wonder whether that applies for most Belgian breweries when comparing the bottles to kegs? Love the video!
Ever had any beer from Unibruoe? I think they are one of the only western breweries (Canada) that make traditional Belgian beer at about the same level as the classics.
tripel de garre is an incredible beer. on draught at their bar it was the nicest beer I've ever had. in bottle form it's feckin up in my top 5 ever.....
I reckon the hype around this beer comes with the situation most people find themselves in when drinking it. Personally, I've visited the bar 9 times now, usually with different groups of people and have always, coincidentally, found myself having THE BEST time when I go in there. Usually this is because I'm topping up from the previous day, to be honest but, y'know... But yeah, it has a special place in my heart because of that even though I don't consider it the best Tripel in the world. I suspect deep down that's true for a lot of people. Nice problem to have I guess! Great video by the way.
I found De Garre last year after many Belgian/Brugge visits and a decade of Belgian beer exploration… and immediately on first sip… thought I’d found the one! Now as I’ve drunk the box I brought back to the UK and can’t replace it, I find it interesting that the beer I covet is thought of as a mass produced, middling, no love, one dimensional beer. As that’s not how I found it. Seems I’m going to have to take another trip to Brugge to ‘double check’! ☺️
Here's the thing: it's brewed by Van Steenberge, the factory that churns out Gulden Draak, Piraat and Fourchette. Middling is the least of the many ailings one could expect from them.
Also: that Kasteel Tripel is a classic example of belgium's obsession with coriander. It's a spice bomb that's only second to exaggerated clown beers like Moortgat's Lost in Spice.
The Untappd stuff reminds me of a point that Michael Tonsmiere makes - a hard-to-find beer is always going to do well on Untappd etc because, even aside from the hype factor, the fact that you have to go to a specific bar in Bruges to get hold of it is going to boost its rating by filtering out all the people who are going to rate it 2/5 because they "aren't really into Belgian beers" or whatever.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel he's got a blog post on Mad Fermentationist called something like "How To Win Untappd" which is basically how breweries (including the one that he runs, this isn't just a hypothetical discussion!) can use decisions about beer range, distribution etc to game their untappd scores. It's honestly one of the most interesting things I've read about the beer industry in ages.
Great video, A topic this channel has been exploring a lot recently is the premise of hype and I think the elusive, hard to obtain nature certainly puts it up there in people's minds as being up there as the best tripel, because it's an elusive beer and a rare treat to obtain this beer and everyone who has tried this beer probably has a "How I got my De Garre (sorry should that be DHHHHHUGGGGHHH)" story (probably, very similar reasons as to why Westvleteren is in similar vein). Great you two lads tackle this touchy subject and sometimes prove that hype is unjustified or at least, shouldn't be as hyped. Quick question whilst we are on the subject of Belgium, so hope you don't mind! Planning a quick trip to Belgium, Two nights in Brussels, as well as journeying to Westvlet and staying in the Monk's Guesthaus (The Brouwershuis at St.Bernardus) so can soak up the atmosphere at Bar Bernard and not have to worry about who the designated driver is, do you think 2 days in Brussels is justified or, should I swing by Bruges and take a day from Brussels?
Definitely spend a day in Bruges, or alternatively Gent. Gent is less touristy and although nothing special on the brewery front has some terrific bars.
Its Friday again so that means beer (Rochefort 10), vegan burgers and a nice new video for me 🍺🤗 not gonna lie, I want to try that De Garre, very interested! Since the triple video, I tried the Kasteel triple several times and I'm totally addicted to it after the Westmalle triple was not only my favorite triple but also my most favorite beer. Love and beer guys, Proost
I feel like you guys really 💩on Van Steenberge. I love the 2 Gulden Draak beers. I prefer De Garre to Westmalle's triple. I had it on draught in Baltimore. Cheers 🍻
Oh sorry didn't mean to come across that way. Van Steenburge make very good beer, but in our opinion none that would be in the conversation for best tripel.
Unfortunately Kwak (or rather its brewer Bosteels) is now owned AB InBev. Our view of AB beers is that we won't cover them unless it's in a blind taste test or culturally important.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel oh wow! I didnt know that. It sucks! ABinbev beers are definitely big no no. Thanks anyway. There used to be another beautiful beer here in US. Its called St.Sebastian it came in ceramic flip top bottles. It was delicious! Especially reserva.
Maybe you could do a review of Avec Les Bons Voeux by Dupont. Although sometimes label a saison, it has some similarities to the Westmalle I think. A nice savory tripel and in my opnion second to Westmalle.
De Garre is the best bar in Brugge, also its the best house beer of any bar in Bruges. There are dollies on the trays that the glasses and cheese come on and back in the day they added your bill up on them Yes it's always classical music, Ravels bolero at the end of the night last tune before home time.
I think de garre is hyped like westvletren because it’s harder to come buy if it was more available like a westmalle it wouldn’t as hyped like comparing a rochfort to a westy
Had Kasteel, St Feuillen Grand Cru, & Westmalle Trips at lowlander bar in london recently. Gotta say i thought the Kasteel banged. That said subtlety is often lost on me XD
Isn't drinking Westmalle from the bottle considered some sort of blasphemy? Cheers though! Looked like a banger trip to Belgium, makes me wanna go there again
My favorite tripel is probably Paix Dieux or Westmalle. Never tried De Garre, but I think that when something is rare or exclusive it gets often overhyped, like Springbank in the whisky world, and this could be another example.
I'm underwhelmed by De Garre Tripel since the mid-eighties. It's not a patch on Westmalle. I'm not sure it was always brewed at Van Steenberge, but hails from there already for a very long time. Untappd is not exactly Evangelium, is it? Unfortunately, that goes for the Kasteel as well, I'm afraid.
At the bar probably isn’t bottled conditioned…That’s why it’s better in the bottle? I think these dubbel, Tripel and quads should be bottled with sugar and fresh yeast to create that secondary fermentation or give it better flavor. IMO
I haven't had a De Garre yet, but somehow Westmalle Tripel did not even make it into my top 3 tripels. I felt that boozey, just like you felt De Garre, and not very much in balance, overloaded with banana notes (which is supposed to be present in tripels, but still was way too much for me). Although, I haven't had it for years, and my palate might have changed since then. My top 3 tripels: 1. Tripel Karmeliet 2. Gouden Carolus Tripel 3. Duvel Tripel. Tripel Karmeliet is in so much perfect balance by 1:1:1 ratio of three different malts, and there are banana, orange and honey notes, what combined with the malt profile makes it the perfect tripel for me.
I think if you like Karmeliet, which is a very light bodied and zesty version, Westmalle is never going to be your fav. Duvel is TECHNICALLY not actually a tripel but a Belgian blond.... but the distinction is so slight it's almost pointless
@@TheCraftBeerChannel OK, I see, it makes sense, then. Regarding the Duvel it's strange, because I have a definate memory from five years ago when I took a tripel version of Duvel in a bottle shop which was 10% ABV. I had come across with the Duvel Tripel Hop by that time already which is 9.5% ABV at present, and obviously a completely different beer. I just have made a little research, and you were right, there is indeed no such thing as "Duvel Tripel". I want to beleive that the tripel was a special edition, instead of just my mind tricked me so bad. 😂 But that purchase still made it to end up in my top 3 tripels. Cringe... 🤣
Next trip get down to La Fruitière in Brussels, pair their Belgian cheese board with a fancy Cantillon bottle and come back to us regarding that Belgian cheese comment 😉
I feel the same way about Van Steenberge, always seen them as fairly middling so that alone would put me off considering going out of my way to find a bottle. I personally associate them with overly boozy, sweet unbalanced beers.
Fromage de Bruxelles is excellent. Suggest you dig out a copy of Belgian beer guide and gen up on Belgian cheese, which can be excellent. Just leave the wotsits for the kiddies. 6:07
This is my not 100% fair comment between westmalle and De Garde. I only have had westmalle on a bootle, and De Garde on tap, but not in Belgium. De Garde on draft wins over every westmalle I have tasted. Sure, bottled beer and draft beer is not the same, but the De Garde beer traveled from Belgium to Portugal on a Keg where I have tasted it. De Garde have the slight edge over westmalle for me
"Beer is context dependent" - possibly my main gripe with untappd hype. Yes, a beer can be objectively better than another beer to a degree, but my favourites are always tied to memories!
A lot to digest here! The first is that definitely agreed that this is not the best triple. There is an element of the Westvleteren factor in that you are buying into an experience (though let's say it is a bloody good boozy experience). The second is the cheese. There is so much good Belgian cheese! That said the cheese you often get is actually Dutch young gouda and is more of a palete cleanser. The third linked to this is that often the cheese is served with a pungent mustard which may offset the sweetness of the beer (I'd like to say this is a conscious decision but more that Belgians like punchy mustard). The fourth is clearly that the triple you missed is not De Garre but Carolus (biased as I'm near the brewery). Most critically the fifth ( my partner would like that i put emphasis on this)-Brad will be happy-is that we have been to De Garre and they do sometimes have doilies on the table.
It's a fairytale town, isn't it? How's a fairytale town not somebody's fucking thing?How can all those canals and bridges and cobbled streets and those churches, all that beautiful fucking fairytale stuff, how can that not be somebody's fucking thing, eh?
Is de Garre Tripel bottled with refermentation in the bottle or is it bottled as is? That can of course make a huge difference with the draft version. And even the Belgians do not pronounce 'de Garre' with such a hard G, so don't bother. 😂
Tripel, is not my favourite type of beer in fact only black IPA's and Grisette's are worse. My favourite is tripel karmeliet, because it does not taste like a tripel.
This channel is extremely informative, but I don't really get the format where the dude on the left is just standing there awkwardly receiving all this knowledge, could just do a dual sit down setup to the camera and mainly keep a close up on the guy on the right. Sick video regardless
Tasting de Garre, a bottle conditioned beer, with the lees DOESN'T at all taste the same as without... You were drinking two different beers. Next time, make sure that you respect the beer... Sorry! But had to say it. Cheers guys!!
@andreleblanc5202 I understand that. I mean how do you taste it on the Lees from keg? Surely if the brewery/bar are happy with it from keg, minus yeast, then it is respected. Generally we don't think any beer should be poured with its sediment, even Weissbier.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel I have been wondering how to deal with sediment. I have a number of beers in my fridge with noticeable sediment. Maybe a good topic to do a Short on.
As you know, bottle conditioned beer doesn't taste the same with or without the lees. I was just underlining the fact that in the video, when pouring from the bottle, Brad's glass didn't contain any lees, but yours did. So, in other words, you were tasting two different beers. That's all. Concerning the lees in the keg, different breweries use different methods. Personally, I don't like Van Steenberge's beers, for the same reason that you evoked, too sweet. So I never went into the production details of their beers. Cheers!
But I agree about the beer. I was in the bar about twenty years ago, it looks exactly the same. I thought the garre appealed to the sort of punter who is drawn to the abv. Far too sweet and one dimensional. Westmalle all day long. For preference, from the 750 bottle. There's a comparison to explore.
Here in belgium, Kasteel has'nt a good reputation, for exemple we call kasteel red the "r*pe beer", popular amoung young girls, so strong and sweet as hell
Belgium cheese sucks and you didn't like the beers at De Garre - wow, I wouldn't have expected that! It seems as if The Craft Beer Channel and me have grown apart.
Cheddar is like Pilsner. Most of it is industrial blandness. The food stuff is special - Montgomery's is one of my favourite cheeses on earth. Check it: www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/products/montgomerys-cheddar
Johnny: "nice peppery banana clove"
Brad: "way less mental smelling"
These are the takes we need!
So De Garre is Vin Diesel, Kasteel is Sylvester Stallone, and in the end out of the sun comes Westmalle as Clint Eastwood to kick both their asses.
Westmalle is Chuck Norris
Others have said it here and i think this is an especially context dependent beer. If you go to the bar, having been out elsewhere already for beers, on a cold rainy september afternoon with good company, de garre is wonderous. Its also variable from batch to batch, so maybe you got a bad batch like you say when you went. You also went with the contex of people saying "best triple ever" which it then has to live up to. Glad you gave it a second chance!
Love de Garre - both the bar and the beer. Last time I was there in June we went straight from the station hauling our suitcases up the stairs, and had one before then splashing out on a bottle of the Bourbon barrel-aged version. A great start to a great weekend.
FYI they also have a barrel aged vintage. It is not on the menu; you have to request it at De Garre. One of those best kept secrets that most who visit De Garre are not aware of.
No way! Looks like we're booking the Eurostar again...
As someone who will be in Bruges end of May, I wholeheartedly thank you for this comment. Will certainly order it
Just a thought, perhaps you could homebrew a Belgian Triple. I would recommend trying to brew one using the BJCP guidelines. Then do a side-by-side flight of commercial triples with you homebrewed version. That would be excellent content for your channel.
We have an abbey beer plan.... but it's gonna take a while to get off the ground!
Went to uni in Bruges and adored this place. One of my favourite Belgian beer glasses. They had a limit on how many of their tripels you can have and after a few of these you would be far gone. Beautiful and classic venue, apparently at one time it was a candle makers place. Every visit to Brugge I must go here.
Love this - love that you tried the recommendation of people in your comments and gave an honest review - nice work! Maybe they just hadn't cleaned their lines the day you tasted it!
Went to bruges recently and had de garre. What a great environment and the tripel was good but not extraordinary. What i did love was the unfiltered brugse zot at De Halve Mann!
Great video. Love the honesty one has to go back on previous taste tests and say one got it wrong! Not easy.
I just checked my untappd. I've checked in only 12 tripels, but realistically I've had more than that, and Tripel De Garre is my top rated one with a personal rating of a 4.5. That was had at a tap room outside of LA last November. My sister and brother in law went to De Garre in Belgium last summer and also loved it and to them it was just a really good tripel having it from the source. I should also add that I got this beer not knowing it was the highest rated tripel. I just saw a beer I had never seen before and was in the mood for a tripel so I got a pour of it.
Hey I mean beer is very subjective, like all taste. It is a great beer, but not as good as we were lead to believe... but the fact we were led might have something to do with that!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel Definitely agree. Whenever I do any homebrew judging, it's always interesting what traits someone else perceives that I don't sense at all.
Straffe Hendriks Tripel is my personal favorite tripel and it both ignited my love for the style and reigns supreme 🎉
A beautiful beer. The quad is my favourite straffe hendrik but the tripel is well worth anyone's time.
Came joint second in our taste test I believe! Great beer.
I loved my trip to Bruges in 1998. Developed my love for Belgian beer there, esp. Chimay. Still have my Bruges coffee service and obligatory lace brought home in our suitcase. I don't remember De Garre but 98 was a long time ago... Great video! Cheers!
Not had Westmalle for a while, so need to try it again. Great comparative video btw!
Just had that one when I went to Baltimore Maryland. At the same time I found gulden Carolous imperial triple too!
I had De Garre at De Garre in October last year. We shared a table with a couple of locals (the one near the stairs that looked a bit like you were going to sit at). They very strongly recommended the Tripel De Garre and were drinking it themselves. It was a great experience. They were explaining to us that Flemish speaking Belgians were much nicer than the French speakers. They claimed most Flemish speakers spoke French, but the French speakers mostly didn't 'bother' to learn Flemish. Just checked my Untapped scores (I know) and De Gare @ De Gare got a 4.25, Westmalle @ Cafe Trappisten got 4.75 a few days later.
Those ratings sound about right to me tbh!
Spent many happy hours in there, love both the beer, and the place. They do play Classical Music, they did in October 2023 the last time, I was in there.
"Plus you can't really get it anywhere, except for Belgian Cafe in Bruges" - Actually, I just had it yesterday on tap in a belgian pub here in Prague. Apparently they have it on tap fairly often.
It was amazing.
I had De Garre tripel on tap at Delirium in Lisbon. It was excellent.
I have been there and I really enjoyed this beer!
De Garre really is a great tripel but also a great bar. Love that it's like being in someone's house.
Westmalle tripel for me is the first beer on my list at a bar in Oostende then the sweet shop beer world is open , My absolute favorite Belgium beer is a blonde called Papegaei brewed out of Diksmuide, If you can get this well worth a go.... its my epiphany beer that years ago changed my view of Beer. long story ....... another great video well done
I had to check my Untappd checkin for de Garre. Appartently I've had it, but wasn't particularly impressed.
My top 3 of Belgian tripels:
Straffe Hendrik Tripel
Westmalle
Chimay (White)
I think Brad nailed it when he said he mentioned it was better from the bottle than on draft. I was thinking maybe the beer needed some sort of bottle conditioning? Dirty lines was a good one too! Didn't think of that one.
If the beer presented more rounded from the bottle, could it be that belgian ales and bottle conditioning are meant to go hand in hand? And I wonder whether that applies for most Belgian breweries when comparing the bottles to kegs? Love the video!
Ever had any beer from Unibruoe? I think they are one of the only western breweries (Canada) that make traditional Belgian beer at about the same level as the classics.
tripel de garre is an incredible beer. on draught at their bar it was the nicest beer I've ever had.
in bottle form it's feckin up in my top 5 ever.....
All power to you! Drink what you love!
@TheCraftBeerChannel absolutely!!!! love the channel btw......
I reckon the hype around this beer comes with the situation most people find themselves in when drinking it. Personally, I've visited the bar 9 times now, usually with different groups of people and have always, coincidentally, found myself having THE BEST time when I go in there. Usually this is because I'm topping up from the previous day, to be honest but, y'know...
But yeah, it has a special place in my heart because of that even though I don't consider it the best Tripel in the world. I suspect deep down that's true for a lot of people. Nice problem to have I guess!
Great video by the way.
I found De Garre last year after many Belgian/Brugge visits and a decade of Belgian beer exploration… and immediately on first sip… thought I’d found the one! Now as I’ve drunk the box I brought back to the UK and can’t replace it, I find it interesting that the beer I covet is thought of as a mass produced, middling, no love, one dimensional beer. As that’s not how I found it. Seems I’m going to have to take another trip to Brugge to ‘double check’! ☺️
Here's the thing: it's brewed by Van Steenberge, the factory that churns out Gulden Draak, Piraat and Fourchette. Middling is the least of the many ailings one could expect from them.
Also: that Kasteel Tripel is a classic example of belgium's obsession with coriander. It's a spice bomb that's only second to exaggerated clown beers like Moortgat's Lost in Spice.
The Untappd stuff reminds me of a point that Michael Tonsmiere makes - a hard-to-find beer is always going to do well on Untappd etc because, even aside from the hype factor, the fact that you have to go to a specific bar in Bruges to get hold of it is going to boost its rating by filtering out all the people who are going to rate it 2/5 because they "aren't really into Belgian beers" or whatever.
A very, very good point! Might raise this in the podcast tomorrow!
@@TheCraftBeerChannel he's got a blog post on Mad Fermentationist called something like "How To Win Untappd" which is basically how breweries (including the one that he runs, this isn't just a hypothetical discussion!) can use decisions about beer range, distribution etc to game their untappd scores. It's honestly one of the most interesting things I've read about the beer industry in ages.
Never really thought of going to Brugge before, but the travel clips make me think it's got to happen (even if this beer ain't great)
Bruges is brilliant- utterly charming, some great pubs and stunning architecture. Well worth a trip
im personally not a fan of the sweeter tripels. i do find that whenever a tripel is a fan favorite, it tends to be on that sweeter side.
I think it's true of all styles really! As a species we love sweeter things. People who don't are the exception.
Great video, A topic this channel has been exploring a lot recently is the premise of hype and I think the elusive, hard to obtain nature certainly puts it up there in people's minds as being up there as the best tripel, because it's an elusive beer and a rare treat to obtain this beer and everyone who has tried this beer probably has a "How I got my De Garre (sorry should that be DHHHHHUGGGGHHH)" story (probably, very similar reasons as to why Westvleteren is in similar vein).
Great you two lads tackle this touchy subject and sometimes prove that hype is unjustified or at least, shouldn't be as hyped.
Quick question whilst we are on the subject of Belgium, so hope you don't mind!
Planning a quick trip to Belgium, Two nights in Brussels, as well as journeying to Westvlet and staying in the Monk's Guesthaus (The Brouwershuis at St.Bernardus) so can soak up the atmosphere at Bar Bernard and not have to worry about who the designated driver is, do you think 2 days in Brussels is justified or, should I swing by Bruges and take a day from Brussels?
Definitely spend a day in Bruges, or alternatively Gent. Gent is less touristy and although nothing special on the brewery front has some terrific bars.
@thecraftbeerchannel try to import some New Belgium Tripel from the USA and see how it measures up
I tried this in Milwaukee. It was good.
Its Friday again so that means beer (Rochefort 10), vegan burgers and a nice new video for me 🍺🤗 not gonna lie, I want to try that De Garre, very interested! Since the triple video, I tried the Kasteel triple several times and I'm totally addicted to it after the Westmalle triple was not only my favorite triple but also my most favorite beer. Love and beer guys, Proost
I feel like you guys really 💩on Van Steenberge. I love the 2 Gulden Draak beers. I prefer De Garre to Westmalle's triple. I had it on draught in Baltimore. Cheers 🍻
Oh sorry didn't mean to come across that way. Van Steenburge make very good beer, but in our opinion none that would be in the conversation for best tripel.
Guys can you review Kwak belgian beer. One of my favorite besides Westmalle, St.bernardus which i also like.
Unfortunately Kwak (or rather its brewer Bosteels) is now owned AB InBev. Our view of AB beers is that we won't cover them unless it's in a blind taste test or culturally important.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel oh wow! I didnt know that. It sucks! ABinbev beers are definitely big no no. Thanks anyway. There used to be another beautiful beer here in US. Its called St.Sebastian it came in ceramic flip top bottles. It was delicious! Especially reserva.
I should mail you some Alagash Tripel, and the barrel aged version.(Curieux)
We have Allagash in the Uk at the moment! I drank a tripel on Sunday. And have had Curieux at the brewery and loved it.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel I had a fit of stupidity, I now remember I watched the video--
There's some good belgian cheese - Achelse blauwe is lovely..
Kasteel quad is (was? Not sure if you can still get it) amazing.
I've ordered a Kasteel and a Westmalle tripels online (and an allagash white coz they actually sell it in UK wtf excited) to compare in light of this
Maybe you could do a review of Avec Les Bons Voeux by Dupont. Although sometimes label a saison, it has some similarities to the Westmalle I think. A nice savory tripel and in my opnion second to Westmalle.
De Garre is the best bar in Brugge, also its the best house beer of any bar in Bruges.
There are dollies on the trays that the glasses and cheese come on and back in the day they added your bill up on them
Yes it's always classical music, Ravels bolero at the end of the night last tune before home time.
La Fin Du Monde is my favorite Tripel. North America represented quite well
The most important sentence from this video: "If in doubt, you should always just drink Westmalle"
Westmalle from the bottle QED.
I think de garre is hyped like westvletren because it’s harder to come buy if it was more available like a westmalle it wouldn’t as hyped like comparing a rochfort to a westy
Had Kasteel, St Feuillen Grand Cru, & Westmalle Trips at lowlander bar in london recently. Gotta say i thought the Kasteel banged. That said subtlety is often lost on me XD
Isn't drinking Westmalle from the bottle considered some sort of blasphemy?
Cheers though! Looked like a banger trip to Belgium, makes me wanna go there again
My favorite tripel is probably Paix Dieux or Westmalle. Never tried De Garre, but I think that when something is rare or exclusive it gets often overhyped, like Springbank in the whisky world, and this could be another example.
I'm underwhelmed by De Garre Tripel since the mid-eighties. It's not a patch on Westmalle. I'm not sure it was always brewed at Van Steenberge, but hails from there already for a very long time. Untappd is not exactly Evangelium, is it?
Unfortunately, that goes for the Kasteel as well, I'm afraid.
you’re all over the place! 🤪
If you've ever watched 'Abroad in Japan's the guy in the yellow jacket is the British "Natski"
At the bar probably isn’t bottled conditioned…That’s why it’s better in the bottle? I think these dubbel, Tripel and quads should be bottled with sugar and fresh yeast to create that secondary fermentation or give it better flavor. IMO
Agreed. It’s definitely good but enjoys a huge bump from exclusivity.
Zot(t?) is a lovely beer, do a delicious double.
I haven't had a De Garre yet, but somehow Westmalle Tripel did not even make it into my top 3 tripels. I felt that boozey, just like you felt De Garre, and not very much in balance, overloaded with banana notes (which is supposed to be present in tripels, but still was way too much for me). Although, I haven't had it for years, and my palate might have changed since then.
My top 3 tripels:
1. Tripel Karmeliet
2. Gouden Carolus Tripel
3. Duvel Tripel.
Tripel Karmeliet is in so much perfect balance by 1:1:1 ratio of three different malts, and there are banana, orange and honey notes, what combined with the malt profile makes it the perfect tripel for me.
I think if you like Karmeliet, which is a very light bodied and zesty version, Westmalle is never going to be your fav. Duvel is TECHNICALLY not actually a tripel but a Belgian blond.... but the distinction is so slight it's almost pointless
@@TheCraftBeerChannel OK, I see, it makes sense, then.
Regarding the Duvel it's strange, because I have a definate memory from five years ago when I took a tripel version of Duvel in a bottle shop which was 10% ABV. I had come across with the Duvel Tripel Hop by that time already which is 9.5% ABV at present, and obviously a completely different beer. I just have made a little research, and you were right, there is indeed no such thing as "Duvel Tripel". I want to beleive that the tripel was a special edition, instead of just my mind tricked me so bad. 😂 But that purchase still made it to end up in my top 3 tripels. Cringe... 🤣
Im only here for Brads fashion. The beer is cool too I guess
I see I’m not the only one who experienced surly hospitality workers in Belgium.
From our experience it is the norm, not the exception.
Sounds like another example of difficult to find = best you've never had. Great video guys 🍻
100%
But you have to try it.
It’s a good tripel made extra elevated due to the experience of drinking it in Brugges. Otherwise it’s not better than Westmalle.
Next trip get down to La Fruitière in Brussels, pair their Belgian cheese board with a fancy Cantillon bottle and come back to us regarding that Belgian cheese comment 😉
My go to tripel is La fin du Monde…
I do have love for Allagash tripel
Frietjes op de markt with cara pils, forget everything else, you blend in perfect ;-)
I feel the same way about Van Steenberge, always seen them as fairly middling so that alone would put me off considering going out of my way to find a bottle. I personally associate them with overly boozy, sweet unbalanced beers.
Straight from the bottle. The ABV must have caught up with Jonny 😀
Forgot it wasn't Heady Topper.
La bloody lovely....for me.
1euro for cara is a ripp off , one can from colruyt the grocery store chain thad distributes cara asks 38cents for 33cl or 46cents for 50cl
Haha not sure we can compare buying a can from a van on the square to a grocery store!
Fromage de Bruxelles is excellent. Suggest you dig out a copy of Belgian beer guide and gen up on Belgian cheese, which can be excellent. Just leave the wotsits for the kiddies. 6:07
Noted for our next trip! But brad will always go for the kids treats.
ahhh HAHAHA! great ending
This is my not 100% fair comment between westmalle and De Garde. I only have had westmalle on a bootle, and De Garde on tap, but not in Belgium. De Garde on draft wins over every westmalle I have tasted. Sure, bottled beer and draft beer is not the same, but the De Garde beer traveled from Belgium to Portugal on a Keg where I have tasted it. De Garde have the slight edge over westmalle for me
"Beer is context dependent" - possibly my main gripe with untappd hype. Yes, a beer can be objectively better than another beer to a degree, but my favourites are always tied to memories!
You'd hope that enough data would round out that bias on review sites but...it doesn't seem to!
Next tripel you have to try is Paix Diet!
A lot to digest here! The first is that definitely agreed that this is not the best triple. There is an element of the Westvleteren factor in that you are buying into an experience (though let's say it is a bloody good boozy experience). The second is the cheese. There is so much good Belgian cheese! That said the cheese you often get is actually Dutch young gouda and is more of a palete cleanser. The third linked to this is that often the cheese is served with a pungent mustard which may offset the sweetness of the beer (I'd like to say this is a conscious decision but more that Belgians like punchy mustard). The fourth is clearly that the triple you missed is not De Garre but Carolus (biased as I'm near the brewery). Most critically the fifth ( my partner would like that i put emphasis on this)-Brad will be happy-is that we have been to De Garre and they do sometimes have doilies on the table.
So much information here! Thanks! Might read this in our podcast tomorrow.
De Garre is pure laughing juice
can't believe you'd cut me like that...
It's a fairytale town, isn't it? How's a fairytale town not somebody's fucking thing?How can all those canals and bridges and cobbled streets and those churches, all that beautiful fucking fairytale stuff, how can that not be somebody's fucking thing, eh?
No beer is better tasting when you just been drinking a Westmalle half an hour before you had this beer.
Do people actually take Untappd rankings seriously?
Dragonmead final absolution. your welcome
It can't be because it's not Le Fort 😉
Had a few comments about this beer... maybe we need to go back to Belgium
The best beer in the world (any style) is the one I'm drinking now... unless it's shit, in which case it was the last good one I had.
Best tripel ever? Jambe de bois?
It's an incredible beer, but for me too bitter to be compared to other tripels. I just enjoy it for the madcap, complex beer it is.
Is de Garre Tripel bottled with refermentation in the bottle or is it bottled as is? That can of course make a huge difference with the draft version. And even the Belgians do not pronounce 'de Garre' with such a hard G, so don't bother. 😂
It's refermented in bottle so definitely a different experience to keg and we think better.
Less than 15 minutes once again! Use the data in your favor! Love your content.
Haha thanks so much! You have no idea how much we are biting our lips to keep the content shorter......
It's not pronounced that way. IT 😂is de harrre (from back of throat)
Isn't that what we did?! I mean clearly we didn't but I'm still none the wiser.
De Garre is nothing special . My favorite Belgian triple is Jambe de Bois from Brasserie de la Senne
Love that beer, but I think it's a bit too bitter to be compared to ... well any other tripel!
Tripel, is not my favourite type of beer in fact only black IPA's and Grisette's are worse. My favourite is tripel karmeliet, because it does not taste like a tripel.
Best tripel is 3 cans of bud light
This channel is extremely informative, but I don't really get the format where the dude on the left is just standing there awkwardly receiving all this knowledge, could just do a dual sit down setup to the camera and mainly keep a close up on the guy on the right. Sick video regardless
Not a fan of Westmalle ,De Gare is better i.m.o.....but... Gouden Carolus and LeFort are better still
Tasting de Garre, a bottle conditioned beer, with the lees DOESN'T at all taste the same as without... You were drinking two different beers. Next time, make sure that you respect the beer... Sorry! But had to say it. Cheers guys!!
So how does that work in the keg version?
Either not refermented (added CO2 instead of sugar and yeast) or 'controlled cask ale'...
@andreleblanc5202 I understand that. I mean how do you taste it on the Lees from keg? Surely if the brewery/bar are happy with it from keg, minus yeast, then it is respected. Generally we don't think any beer should be poured with its sediment, even Weissbier.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel I have been wondering how to deal with sediment. I have a number of beers in my fridge with noticeable sediment. Maybe a good topic to do a Short on.
As you know, bottle conditioned beer doesn't taste the same with or without the lees. I was just underlining the fact that in the video, when pouring from the bottle, Brad's glass didn't contain any lees, but yours did. So, in other words, you were tasting two different beers. That's all.
Concerning the lees in the keg, different breweries use different methods. Personally, I don't like Van Steenberge's beers, for the same reason that you evoked, too sweet. So I never went into the production details of their beers.
Cheers!
But I agree about the beer. I was in the bar about twenty years ago, it looks exactly the same. I thought the garre appealed to the sort of punter who is drawn to the abv. Far too sweet and one dimensional. Westmalle all day long. For preference, from the 750 bottle. There's a comparison to explore.
Our westmalle trappist ep is in the edit as we speak!
Here in belgium, Kasteel has'nt a good reputation, for exemple we call kasteel red the "r*pe beer", popular amoung young girls, so strong and sweet as hell
Wondering what was your worst moment. The Belgian cheese comment or picking Kasteelbier as best tripel in the previous video.
Definitely the latter.
Eating cheese prior to tasting is a mistake. Try again without the cheese fats.
Haha fair point but we were trying to recreate the right context, and no Belgian bar round is complete with cheese cubes.
@@TheCraftBeerChannel pork scratching is the way forward. lol.
@mikebeswick3420 true in so many situations.
Belgium cheese sucks and you didn't like the beers at De Garre - wow, I wouldn't have expected that!
It seems as if The Craft Beer Channel and me have grown apart.
Belgian cheese sucks and you chose Cheddar over it? How can I trust anything you say from here on :P
Cheddar is like Pilsner. Most of it is industrial blandness. The food stuff is special - Montgomery's is one of my favourite cheeses on earth. Check it: www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/products/montgomerys-cheddar