Drink This: Tripel Karmeliet

I love beer. This is no secret to anyone who knows me, or who has seen me, or heard of me. It is good stuff.

I was so lucky to be visiting my friends in Amsterdam, who had a similar appreciation for the hoppy stuff. And, in Amsterdam, taps are flowing with delicious Belgian beers, I think largely made by monks. Oh, lord, I could have stayed there forever and not tasted all of the good stuff!

But my favorite, by far, of them all, was this nectar, Tripel Karmeliet. To my taste, it has a nice finish of sweetness, kind of like my favorite Newcastle, but not as heavy. It is also not icky sweet as some of the fruity beers. It is a nice, light, full-bodied glass of good.

Oh, and the glass? That may be the thing I love the most. When you go to a bar, they serve the beer in a special glass. It makes beer drinking so much classier (and, if that's something you don't know about me...I am all class). What is strange, is that many of these glasses, like this on pictured here, help open up the beer, much like a wine glass. I never thought about beer tasting like that, but it definitely happens with the right glass.

So, you're probably thinking...annie, Amsterdam was close to 6 months ago, why bring this up now? Well...I had some Tripel in my fridge, and finally had the opportunity (or, errrr...remembered it was in there) to drink it this weekend. And then I remembered how good it was, and I needed to sing its praises!! They seem to have it at many bars in the Bay Area, so I highly recommend you give it a try.