Westmalle Tripel

Westmalle Tripel is the beer that gave the tripel style its name: a strong golden ale of 9.5% first brewed in 1934 at the Trappist abbey of Westmalle, north-east of Antwerp. Drinkers call it the "mother of all tripels" with some justice — its pairing of a pale, candi-sugar-lightened body with assertive hopping and refermentation in the bottle is the template every other tripel works from.

The abbey was founded in 1794, and the monks brewed their first beer in 1836, initially for their own table; local sales followed in 1856. A new brewhouse completed in 1933 gave the community room to try something bigger, and the strong pale ale released the following year carried the name Tripel — the first modern use of the term.

The recipe has been essentially unchanged since 1956, built on pale pilsner malts lightened with pale candi sugar and hopped with Saaz and Styrian Goldings among others. The beer is still brewed inside the abbey walls under the supervision of the monks, still refermented in the bottle, and still the reference point brewers reach for whenever they attempt the style.

Bright gold under a dense white head; orchard fruit and peppery yeast spice on the nose, a honeyed malt middle, then a long, dry, hop-bitter finish that belies its 9.5% strength.