My favorite brewery Moortgat/Duvel is launching the new Tripel Hop again, version 2013. Every year they select a new kind of hop to add to the beer giving it another flavour without losing touch with the original Duvel. This years version is upgraded with the distinct Sorachi hop, an old hop originating from Japan with a rather high alpha level. 2012's version had American Citra hop as flavouring agent. I allready tasted the Sorachi hop in the Xtrem Hop series of Delhaize so I knew I was in for a very bitter, fruity/exotic flavour bomb!
We missed part of the speech of CEO Michel Moortgat and head brew master Hedwig Neven due to the traffic inferno around Brussels but I remembered the brew master promising us a lot of exotic flavours like coconut, mint, citrus and the CEO telling that they are a company that like to keep the customers close. The origin of the Duvel Tripel Hop is a perfect example of their bond with their fans/customers. When the original Duvel Tripel Hop was brewed back in 2007 it was limited to 20.000 bottles and sold out very fast leaving a lot of people with a taste for more. A bet between some fans, de 'lambikstoempers', and Duvel was made. If they were able to get 10.000 fans on a facebook page Duvel would start brewing the beer again! And the rest is history......
I had a short chat with the director of quality, Dimitri Staelens who is in charge of the quality of your brew. A nice person with a heart/passion for his job. He previously worked at Inbev,one of the biggest brewers worldwide, and he said that the passion/effort for creating a perfect beer is big at Moortgat and that is something that I taste in every Duvel I drink. Inbev brews lemonade,they really do, Moortgat creates beers with soul. My opnion!This Years Tripel Hop has a nice floral,fruity nose and on the palate it delivers a nice explosion of lemon, lemongrass and other exotic fruit ending in a nice dry bitter aftertaste.This beer is surely going to give me a lot of pleasure this year.
As a food pairing they offered some sushi, there is that link with Japan again but unfortunately the good people of Duvel forgot one thing....A Duvel Tripel Hop can make up a big appetite and all the sushi were gone in about 20 minutes leaving us no choice than to still our hunger with another Duvel. The consequences were for me an earlier visit to my bed ;)
Had a real great evening and looking forward to more Duvel Tripel Hop 2013.
Special thanks goes to Jo Lories, marketeer@Duvel for inviting us and my wife for going the extra miles to get us there!!
Kev
