This is a smooth, dry, hoppy beer from one of the six Trappist breweries. This is the best known and most respected of Westmalle's beers, and the brewery's strongest. With plenty of vanilla and some spices in the nose, the primary characteristic of this beer is dry, powdery fruit. Initially light on the tongue, Tripel has a very pleasant and rounded vanilla character, with spicy hop flavours and a touch of spirits. Some elusive malt notes are also buried in there somewhere, but chiefly come across as light fruit. At the finish it cloys at the back of the throat to produce a long whisky, honey and coriander aftertaste (a little like a hot toddy, I suppose). The beer spends five weeks maturing during its second fermentation, delivering a high degree of complexity and ensuring that it is very highly regarded by the world's beer afficionados.