Augustijn Ale - Brouwerij Van Steenberge, Ertvelde

This bottle of Augustijn Ale is a smallish stubby dark bottle with a curious label on it. On the label is a scene of a bald(ing) fat monk stirring a barrel of what I assume is barley. The label is drawn in a way that reminds me of Disney's animated Robin Hood movie from the 1970s. There are no anthropomorphized animals in this monk's cellar but there are a couple of curious medieval banner with animals on them. One banner has three lions in silhouette and the other has three deer or elk... It seems a little out of place but maybe that's because I'm not part of this beer's target audience... I'm not a 14th century monk that looks like he just stepped out of a Disney animated movie.

The more I drink this beer, the more I want to watch that old Robin Hood movie. I don't know what it is about this beer.... other than the slightly silly label. The Augustijn Ale tastes, smells and looks like a Tripel. There really isn't anything outstanding about this beer, it's just... good. It makes me long for the days when monks were fat and they all had that uniformed bald spot.

The Augustijn Tripel is a rather mellow Tripel. With flavors like green apple and orange peel it doesn't stray far from established conventions. What this beer does very well though is marry the sour yeast and 8% alcohol with all that sweetness to create a very well balanced Tripel. This is a beer you could give a beginner and not have to worry about scaring them off of big Belgian beers. This beer is mellow enough, sweet enough and fizzy enough to satisfy everyone's needs.