Name: The Trifecta!
Brewers: Turning Point Beer, Celestial Beerworks, Oak Cliff Brewing Co. (United States)
Style: Mixed-Style Beer (Base Style: Specialty IPA: New England IPA)
ABV: 10.5%
Review Year: 2021
The Trifecta! is a hazy and juicy “Triple IPA” brewed with Citra and Sabro hops. This massive beer, which weighs in at 10.5% ABV, was brewed by a trio of Texas-based craft breweries: Turning Point Beer, Celestial Beerworks, and Oak Cliff Brewing Co.
STYLE GUIDELINES
This beer is being evaluated as a Mixed-Style Beer (34B) with the Specialty IPA: New England IPA (21B) as the base style in the context of the 2015 Beer Style Guidelines of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). The most current version of the guidelines can be found on the BJCP website.
As of this writing, the “Triple IPA” is not an official and explicit style in the BJCP; thus, these beers still lack a comprehensive set of style guidelines. For the hazy and juicy variants, these Triple IPAs could simply be bigger-than-double versions of a New England IPA or Hazy IPA with an ABV of around 10%.
TASTING NOTES
Hazy straw with a well-formed medium white head. The aroma went full-on ripe peach, mango, and resin. After a while, moderate aromas of coconut, bready malt, passion fruit surfaced alongside a distinct resiny-leafy “dank” character. Medium-full body, moderate carbonation, no harsh or hot alcohol notes. Flavors of ripe mango, peach, and cantaloupe burst into the scene coupled with a medium-low resiny-leafy “dankness” and a duality of coconut and lime zest. Perceived bitterness was moderately low, while a low bready malt backbone was present to support the hoppy flavors. Semi-sweet finish (moderate residual sweetness); aftertaste lingered long with ripe peach, coconut, and some bitterness.
THE VERDICT
These juicy and hazy “Triple IPAs” still lack a comprehensive set of formal and explicit guidelines, but with what we have tried so far, we think The Trifecta! could be another potential benchmark of the said style. We refer to these beers informally as “New England IPAs on steroids” due mainly to their massive juicy hop aroma and flavor profiles and high yet concealed alcohol content, and this Triple IPA embodied these salient characteristics quite well. Moreover, the absence of any “hot” alcohol notes, astringency (puckering quality), “hop bite,” and harsh bitterness have all made this beer quite smooth and palatable despite weighing in at 10.5% ABV. We were also delighted to have noted the distinct coconut characteristics associated with the Sabro hop variety. All in all, we think The Trifecta! is an outstanding beer and goes down as one of our more memorable “Triple IPAs.”
Recommended Readings:
Flavor Fever: Seeing Through the Haze of Double and Triple Juicy IPAs (Craft Beer & Brewing, 2020)
Related Reviews:
Turning Point Beer
Celestial Beerworks
Oak Cliff Brewing Co.
Craft Beer from the United States
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