CHRISTOFFEL NOBEL – IS IT OR ISN’T IT?

Some confusing signals being sent across the beer world on this Dutch beer. Yeah, Dutch beer, you heard me. CHRISTOFFEL NOBEL is either a Czech-style pilsner or a “bottom-fermented tripel”, depending upon whom you ask. I asked for a glass of it at LA TRAPPE in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, and that very glass is pictured here. What’s that look like to you? Sort of like a bottom-fermented Czech pilsner/tripel hybrid? Yeah, me too. CHRISTOFFEL NOBEL is “fruit-forward”, as they say, a little tangy, and with more hops than you’d expect out of most lagers. The fruit taste is sweet, balanced by something of a dry, grassy taste after that. It does, however, get a little boring a little too quickly. I think it’s the first beer from the Netherlands I’ve had since GROLSCH, and lemme tell ya, it’s a far sight better than that atrocity – just nothing I’ll go out of my way to sample again. 6.5/10.