CulturAle Press

Ten Top Tripels: #8 Garden Grove The Knight, Richmond, Va.

Date:  March 3, 2019

The Story—  Richmond has exploded as a beer city in the past few years.   That’s fitting, since the country’s first canned beer, Kreuger’s Finest, rolled out here 85 years ago.  Today it is home to some of the most famous breweries in the east and lines for can releases sometimes stretch outside in the rain.   You won’t have to stand in the rain for a can of Garden Grove, though – they don’t package-but it’s worth walking through the rain, if you need to, to savor their well-above average beers in their taproom.

Garden Grove gets less press than some of the cult favorites here, but it’s one of the more comfortable taprooms in the city and a fine place to just sit back and enjoy very good beer.  We found the full range of their beers to be quite good and some were nothing short of excellent. They seem to be at their best with Belgian styles.  Many of their beers are aged in wood – we don’t think this one was– but with or without the wood, beers here are the product of a good deal of skill.

This example of the Tripel style used Kashmir hops from North Carolina.   The  local-ish hops took it a few steps away from the original (echt), but added interest.   Many tripel brewers make changes in the name of originally that leave a drinker wondering where the “tripel” went.   This one succeeds in being interesting, but keeps a good deal of authentic character.

The Beer— (tasted in 2016; see Caveat below).  Heavy for style but much of it is echt.  It’s floral and metallic and slightly sugary. We assume  that the North Carolina Kashmir hops contribute to an late bitter that isn’t typical in tripels.   There were notes of sucrose, especially late in the finish, that we found distracting, but overall this was a beer that was fun to taste and ponder.

Value —  Good to fair.   Garden Grove brews good beer and they know it.   They’re a small brewery — we understand they need the margin.   If you want breweries like this, and we do, you have to pay for them.

Values:  “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.

 To start the month of March we’re featuring our top ten tripels over the past several years– these are wonderfully complex and even delicate strong golden ales.   At their best, Tripels are among the best beers in the world.   At their common norm, they’re heavy handed, big-boozed and barely better than the malt liquors of the 20th century.   Here are ten beers that could show the rest of the country how it’s done.

CAVEAT:  The days of flagship beers, except for the Sierra Nevadas of the world, are gone.   Most breweries have a handful of beers they produce regularly, but even the lists of “usuals” vary with time.  Reviews posted here about craft beers on both sides of the Atlantic are intended to provide a sense of the strengths of the breweries featured and are subject to change.

 We’re often asked to share our tasting notes on over 33,000 beers; this blog is in answer to those requests.   Not all our notes, though.  The great beer writer Michael Jackson admirably followed the Thumper Rule, and we’ll try to do the same.  (“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.”)   All the beers we post are from the top half of our ratings and most are from the top quarter.   Of greater value, we think, are the stories behind the beers,   and we try to give you enough about the brewery, the style and the places to find great beer to help you on your own beer journeys.   At CulturAle Press we try to write books and publish posts that will help you “Drink Well and Travel Safely.”