Burnt Hickory The Fighting Bishop Belgian Style Trippel Beer Review

The Fighting Bishop Trippel

Review Date 12/1/2012

Try? Re-buy?

One of the cool things about Taco Mac is that you can see what beers are on at any location by hopping on over to their website and selecting the location you are interested in visiting. Actually, I should qualify that, since what you see is actually a list of kegs on tap, and waiting on deck as well. To make it easier to find new beers to add to my Brewniversity studies, I usually filter out beers that I’ve already had at The Mac.

Planning to head to my local Canton location for pint night, I was happy to see a Burnt Hickory beer on the list, the Fighting Bishop Trippel to be precise. Better still, when I arrived I found it on the “Just In” menu, although the hefty price of $9 for an 11 ounce glass was a bit excessive. Still, Burnt Hickory is a local brew made in Kennesaw, Georgia, and as I have yet to see their beers in bottles, I ordered a glass.

While I’m waiting for the beer to arrive, I’ll regale you with a true story that occurred while enjoying my first brew, a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Guy sits next to me and tells the bartender he left his paycheck here a few nights ago, and that he called and they have it in the safe for him. Without skipping a beat, I turned to him and said "Yeah, plenty of nights I've left my paycheck here, too".

Guess you had to be there.

OK, here’s the beer. One of the things that really interested me about Fighting Bishop is that it’s brewed with green peppercorns. Such unusal ingredients are always welcome.

My glass of Burnt Hickory The Fighting Bishop Belgian Style Trippel Ale arrived a hazy yellowish color with a medium-sized head formation and a spicy, somewhat phenolic nose. As I sipped, I got some tasty clove and vanilla notes with rich sweet malt underneath, a decided bready character, and a faint banana ester. The phenol notes from the nose were more pronounced in the palate. I did enjoy the slightly peppery finish (from the peppercorns.)

This brew was very rich indeed, a true sipper with big alcohol warmth in the finish alcohol content is 8.5% by volume). Overall, I found this to be a tasty effort though it is chewier than most tripels and could use some Belgian funk, more peppercorn notes and less phenols.

To be fair, this one needs some work and I would prefer a Trippel from Unibroue, Allagash, Ommegang or most Belgian brewers over it. Half point off for the price, too.

Still, were I to see this in bottles I would certainly try it again.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

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