A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 37, Riverhorse Triple Horse

I'm stealing this from them: This is a Belgian with muscles but it's not from Brussels but from just up the Delaware River.

I have to apologize for the picture but I upgraded the software on my phone and the settings changed and I didn't have time to figure them out.

In actuality the color is much more coppery than this washed out yellow looking thing, but there is a chill haze in the beer, or is it wheat?  I don't know, I served it pretty cold.

May I just say before anything.  Beer Advocate.  Update your search engine bros.  Yours is like google in 1999.  It sux! I guess Riverhorse is not in your files.

This is a Belgian Triple which is so named because the monks would triple the amount of malts in the beer rendering it high in alcohol.  This one is 10%

The bottle I can reuse!  Thanks Riverhorse for helping out the homebrew world!

The beer pours a somewhere between straw and copper color with a very thin head.  From what I have read, the head should be thick and foamy with tiny bubbles.  The head remains the same throughout the drink with a nice Friar Tuck almost encompassing the entire top with EXCEPTIONAL archway looking lacing.

The aroma is mostly of copious amounts of lighter malt a very slight banana smelling yeast and some mild citrus spices like coriander.  The nutmeg is tough for me to smell.

Overall, my first impression is super sweet, but then stepping back and taking my time I am able to pick out a few tastes other than the malts.  The banana yeast comes through half way through the sip and the medium carbonation really lights up the alcohol if you look for it.  I'm told that the hop profile balances out the sweet and it would taste a lot sweeter without them, but I notice the only tiniest of hop at the end along with black pepper.  Intriguing.  The mouthfeel, well, light and chewy come to mind with this one.  The alcohol is apparent and warming.  Carbonation is moderate and accentuates the alcohol somehow.

Overall, I give this beer a 7.5 out of ten.  For me it is too sweet and not balanced enough with hops.  I do like that, but I have to go with the rules.  The alcohol is a little too hot I think for this style but if you are not looking you won't notice it, but as the beer gets warmer, there is even an aroma of it.  It does seem to get more complex as it warms up and may just push my numbers into the 8 range.

Give it a try!  Don't ever go by what critics say, if you like a beer, YOU LIKE A BEER.  That is all that matters really!

Have a great night and keep on keepin' on!

-Fish Wiss