Samuel Adams New World Tripel: Day 24 of my Advent Calendar exchange with my father, featuring a 10% abv Oak Barrel Aged Tripel from the Boston Beer Company itself. This is one of those beers I have seen on the shelves many times and for whatever reason I simply passed it by thinking it was a fancy bottle with just ok beer inside, apparently that was a mistake!

Flavour: This starts off with some light pear and cereal malt, quickly moving into an oaked effervescent floral middle that spreads all over your palate and finally finishes with some sweet caramel and hints of coriander and clove spice on the aftertaste.

Overall Impression: I was very impressed with this, just the right amount of oak. Sweet, spicy and well balanced – just the way I like it!

Rating: Awesome, 9/10 for sure, I made a big mistake passing this up before.

Food Pairing: I like my Tripel’s with prosciutto and a fancy goat cheese, the sweet and spicy combo pairs perfectly with this style of beer.

Here’s some information on this beer from the brewery itself, some of the history of the style and so on. Interestingly enough they blend a bit of sour beer into this one, I didn’t detect any sourness at all and I I like how they describe it the video saying that the blend really makes this beer “come alive”.