Rare Beer Club 6-Bottle Selections - June 2025
Red Tripel
Brouwerij Rodenbach – Roeselare, West Flanders, Belgium
[Belgian Tripel blended w/ 2-yr Aged Flemish Red-Brown Ale – 8.2% ABV]
Brouwerij Rodenbach needs little introduction, as there is perhaps no more famous brewery in all Belgium. While the country has a long history of brewing both tart and downright sour beers, it was Rodenbach in the late 19th century that helped pioneer and define the specific style of beer we know as Flanders/Flemish Red Ale, considered by many to be the most vinous, or wine-like, of all beer styles. Long-time club members will be familiar with Rodenbach’s limited offerings, like their annual Vintage, which features 100% aged beer derived from a single huge cask, and Charactère Rouge, a version of Vintage produced with sour cherries, raspberries and cranberries. This month, we’re excited to have the chance to bring you Rodenbach’s Red Tripel, an unusual Tripel/Flanders Red hybrid first introduced to celebrate the brewery’s 200th anniversary in 2021.
Combining two classic Belgian styles, Red Tripel blends a traditional Belgian tripel with a Flemish red-brown ale that’s been aged for two years inside of 4,000-gallon oak foeder casks. Living up to its name, it pours a striking reddish hue. On the nose, this is boldly fruity, with big notes of sour Luxardo cherries and underripe stone fruits grabbing our attention straight out of the gate. Yeast-driven phenolic spice notes follow, as core aspects of both the tripel and Flemish red ale shine through bringing loads of pepper and clove from the former and plush red fruits, berry-like tartness, and wisps of balsamic via the latter. There’s a medium-full mouthfeel here emphasizing red fruits, berries, and a nice balance of subtle tartness, peppery phenolics, and some residual malty sweetness. The sweet-sour interplay is impressively realized, as the beer’s tart notes find a delicious foil in the sweeter, toasty bread character at the beer’s core. We found significant fruit leather, caramelization, and rounded oak-barrel notes, plus inviting honeyed maltiness, a crisp pop of mineral bitterness, and a nice mixture of peppery and clove yeast notes. It’s a deft blend of two exceptional beers: tasty, super-unique, and not to be missed.
1726 Imperial Breakfast Stout
Invertase Brewing Company – Phillipsburg, NJ
[Imperial Coffee/Breakfast Stout – 9% ABV (16-oz cans)]
The name Invertase is a nod to an enzyme that works on sugars, and it’s an appropriate moniker for this extremely scientific-oriented family brewery that opened in October 2019. In addition to brewmaster Stephen’s (the son) mechanical engineering background, Steve’s (the dad) background is in biochemistry while Karen (the mom) is a microbiologist. The brewery’s got a full lab that analyzes each batch to ensure perfect consistency. Invertase distributes just in NJ and eastern PA, so it’s been our pleasure to have the opportunity to work with this family brewery to secure enough of their small-production 1726 Imperial Breakfast Stout for our club members this month. We’re excited to introduce this very skilled and uber-scientific brewery to our members for the first time, and we’re looking forward to seeing more from these folks in the years ahead.
1726 is a bold coffee stout that pours opaque and virtually black with a fluffy head of dark brown foam. On the nose, this is wonderfully rich, led by prominent robust coffee notes at the center of a multitude of inviting aromas. We picked up plenty of bittersweet chocolate along with touches of scorched toast, deep and dark caramelization, notions of fresh leather and roasted nuts, and hints of ash and smoke, plus touches of sawn wood and earthiness. The story continues much the same way in the flavor, which is very roasty indeed. Waves of dark-roast coffee take the lead here, backed by dark chocolate and deeply toasted bread crust. As the beer evolves in the glass with some aeration and warmth, look for flashes of dried dark fruits to pop through amidst hints of roasted nuts and light peat or smoke. Hops add further decoration with a certain earthy, spicy, and zesty character and the malty core retains some residual sweetness which offers a satisfying counterpoint to the bitter elements. But, that sweetness never steps over the line into cloying; this stout maintains an impressive balance that’s ultimately quite dry from the prominent roast, healthy hop bitterness, and elevated alcohol level – which adds some bite while remaining quite well hidden overall. Smooth, creamy, and full-bodied, 1726 struck us as the complete package for a coffee stout: generous coffee, silky smoothness, tons of subtle nuances, and effortlessly enjoyable.
NOTE: 1726 Imperial Breakfast Stout is packaged in 16-oz cans, so instead of three 750-ml bottles, your shipment will include six 16-oz cans.
