La Fin du Monde

Just a random tasting. Had this several times but thought I'd think it over a little more. I'm a big fan of the Unibroue beers. It's remarkable that they make so many Franco-Belgian styles so well. I'm not wild about the fruit-flavored Ephemere beers, but everything else they do I basically dig. Trois Pistoles is a brilliant dark Belgian strong; the annual special is always good; this one is good; Eau-Benite, Terrible--they're all good.

This one is very pale golden with a moderate head. Clean, airy nose with a little whiff of cork--which I always like. Saaz hops maybe? Very light palate for a beer of this size (9%)--I'm wondering if there's a fair proportion of wheat in here, in addition to the requisite sugar. This is light enough, by the way, that in some ways it reminds me more of a Saison than a tripel, which is what people usually call it. This is a tremendously subtle beer. It's always interesting to think about how the occasional great commerical brewer gets something like this into form without warehousing it for 8-12 months, which they generally don't. . . By the way, the website says this is spiced. Coriander I could definitely see, but overall they've used a pretty light hand, as I see it. Nothing too dramatic. Very suave stuff--and perfidiously drinkable.

And, what's more, I get another corkable 750 ml bottle. Whoo-hoo!