Name: Il Libro Di Cagliostro [Cranberry Edition]
Brand: Adroit Theory Brewing Company
Availability: InStock

Belgian tripels are usually pale. The one Adroit Theory Brewing Company packaged this week is not. The brewery says Il Libro Di Cagliostro [Cranberry Edition] pours bright red with a white head, the fruit reading straight through the amber tripel base underneath.

The base is built the traditional way: mostly Pilsner malt with a dash of Aromatic malt, leaving the Belgian yeast and the fruit to do the rest of the talking. The fruit goes in as puree during fermentation rather than after it. Adroit Theory says that leaves a subtle tart finish instead of a jammy one.

The brewery's notes describe familiar Belgian esters on the nose alongside the cranberry, then caramel and candi flavors playing off the fruit in something it calls delicate but crushable. It also attaches a warning: the 10 percent ABV is well masked.

Cranberry is an uncommon choice for a beer this size, and a sensible one. It is among the least sweet fruits that anyone puts in a glass, sharp and faintly astringent. That means it works in the opposite direction to most fruit additions. Rather than piling more sweetness onto a style that already runs sweet and strong, it trims the beer back. That should make this a better companion to a rich cheese board than to dessert. It is not the territory most of Adroit Theory's current lineup occupies.

Il Libro Di Cagliostro [Cranberry Edition] is available now at the Purcellville taproom on draft and in cans, with 30 cases packaged.

Editor’s Take

Il Libro Di Cagliostro translates as The Book of Cagliostro, and Cagliostro was an 18th-century Italian occultist who sold an elixir of immortality across half of Europe before the Roman Inquisition caught up with him and he died in a cell. Putting his name on a 10 percent tripel that the brewery openly admits does not taste like 10 percent is a joke that gets better the longer you look at it. The man built a career on selling people something stronger than it appeared.

Then there is the cranberry, a fruit that spends the entire year in a bog waiting for one Thursday in November to justify its existence, and which almost nobody drinks without cutting it with something first. Here it turns up in late August with a job that genuinely suits it, because sharp and slightly astringent is exactly what a big sweet Belgian ale is short of. Put it next to a cheese board with something rich and washed-rind on it and let the tartness do the tidying up.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Il Libro Di Cagliostro Sets Cranberry Against a 10% Tripel

Belgian tripels are usually pale. Adroit Theory's newest one is not - the brewery says cranberry turns it bright red, and that the 10 percent underneath is well hidden.

Source & Editorial