Beer Review: River Horse’s Raspberry Tripel Horse

Name: Raspberry Tripel Horse
Brewing Company: River Horse Brewing Company
Location: Ewing, NJ
Style: Belgian Tripel
ABV: 10%

“A sweet-tart twist on the venerable’ NJ brewery’s most respected and widely known beer is a welcome variant on a tried and true style.”

From River Horse Brewing’s page for the beer:

Year after year, the fan favorite at our cask festival is always our Tripel Horse Belgian Style Ale with raspberries. So we figured why not run with it! We’ve added 14 pounds of raspberries per barrel to our original Tripel Horse recipe and bottled it for you to enjoy at home. The raspberry is perfectly balanced in this smooth Belgian style beer. The label may be loud – but the raspberry is perfectly balanced in this smooth Belgian style beer

Almost exactly a year since my first review of a River Horse beer, here comes another from the venerable New Jersey brewery. Oddly enough, for all the love I throw to the Belgian style ales, this is the first Belgian Tripel I’m reviewing. River Horse’s Tripel Horse arguably the most well known and most acclaimed beer they brew – it received a bronze medal at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival – but I figured that beer was well known enough that I wanted to try something slightly adjacent to that beer. This beer also happens to mark my 5th anniversary on untappd, so it is a great candidate for review.

This beer, like many beers, began as a brewery exclusive variant on a popular beer. I’ve had the original Tripel Horse a few times and have wanted to try this sweetened variant since it was released in bottles a few years ago. In fact, one of the first times I had Tripel Horse I had two sitting at the bar waiting for a table. I thought the beer was delicious, but the ABV was subtle. To the point that when I stood up when our table was called, a nearly fell back down.

Enough reminiscing and preamble, let’s dive into this beer, shall we?

The beer pours like a standard Tripel, but a little hazier and with a reddish-pinkish hue. Not surprising given the amount of raspberries added per barrel. I get the yeasty aroma I’d expect from a Tripel with maybe a hint of the raspberries. It makes for a unique aroma and not unpleasant.

First sip gives more of the raspberry than the nose did, the tartness of the raspberry seems most prevalent. The beer turns out to be quite well-rounded, with the raspberry and yeast playing nicely together. This is a very flavorful beer so I don’t know that I’d pair it with say, a steak, pizza, or your main meal.

The magic of the yeast along with the sweet tartness brought by the raspberry make for a really nice dessert beer. I think the sweetness also masks the 10% ABV of the beer. The booziness / alcohol level aren’t immediately present, but noticeable at the end. Granted, I didn’t chug the beer but rather consumed it in smaller sips because it is such a potently flavor-filled beer.

If you are looking for a sweet take on an already excellent interpretation of a world class style, River Horse’s Raspberry Tripel Horse is well worth trying.

I’ll beat the same drum I do for most higher ABV beers: the flavors come more alive as the beer settles from fridge temperature to room temperature. The sweetness takes over the tartness just a little bit, too.

Side note on the label, it seems over the past year or two, River Horse has made their mascot – Brewtus the Hippo – a more prominent component of their label designs. For this one, they put a beret on him so I found myself playing Prince’s Raspberry Beret in my head when I was enjoying the beer. According to this facebook post, from River Horse the beer was indeed brewed in homage to his Purprleness, Prince:

…Our Raspberry Tripel was created around the time the Artist-Formerly-Known-As (and known again as) Prince died. In honor of his badassness, we thought Brewtus should don a Raspberry Beret.

While this specific beer has been available in bottles for about two years, it is nice to see that River Horse, one of earliest independent/craft breweries in NJ continues to release new styles and beers. This is one that should be an annual favorite.

Recommended, link to Untappd 3.75-bottle cap rating.

Untapped badges earned with this beer:

Dubbel, Tripel and Quad Oh My! (Level 9)

Sky’s the Limit! (Level 29)

Cheers to You (Level 5)