Price: $9.99/750 mL at Total Wine

Region: Orange County, CA

Style: Tripel

ABV: 8.1% 

Sight: hazy gold (bottle conditioned)

Smell: pear, herbal, carrot, faint banana

Taste: tropical fruit, pear, basil, citrus

Overall:  This one is definitely meant for summer summer summertime.  At first it smells like it might be a little funky—the fruit is there, but so is something vegetal and vaguely herbaceous.  From the nose, I was expecting to taste something very, very strange and unfamiliar.  I was wrong—I can’t believe how friendly and refreshing the flavor is.  Ripe tropical fruit up front is complimented by an herbaceous spicy basil, which funnels into a gently citric lemongrass finish.  It’s quite seamless.  The flavors I’m tasting are so cohesive and delicious that I don’t even care to know how they happened.  I’m just happy.  Recommended pairings: sunshine, a hot day, outdoors, friends.  I’m going to be blatantly un-objective here and tell you this is one of my favorite beers that I’ve ever had.