International Tripel Day
What is Tripel Day?
March 3rd, Tripel Day, is a celebration of the Belgian style Tripel! We are one of 33 different brewers across seven countries and four continents participating in 2026. We will be offering tasters of our two Tripels from 4-7 pm Tuesday, and both are available in cans for 10% off to go! Check out the Craft Beer Days page on Tripel and see what other breweries are particpating.
Tripels are beautiful golden coloured beers, read more below!
What is a Tripel?
Tripels are a classic Belgium beer, known for their strong, complex flavours and high alcohol content. They are the perfect marriage of spicy and fruity flavours supported by a soft, grainy sweet malt impression. Hailing from Belgium (the first Tripel was brewed by Westmalle in the 1930s), the style has spread to other monasteries and craft breweries around the world. A typical Tripel ranges in alcohol from 7.5% to 9.5% ABV. For their high alcohol content and strong flavours they are a best enjoyed as 'sipping' beers.
Like with most Belgian beers, the Belgian yeast is the forerunner, bringing out those characteristic spicy and fruity notes.
Winterlong's Tripels
Before we opened Winterlong, we had dabbled in a few Belgian-style beer recipes as homebrewers, from Saison to Strong Golden Ale, to Tripel. When we started Winterlong, it was just a matter of time before a Tripel made its way into bottles and cans.
Rewind back to 2016, when our brewer at the time, Matt Waugh, helped craft what is now Divine Intervention, our barrel-aged Tripel. Matt took inspiration from the famous Allagash Brewing, who make a delicious partially barrel-aged Tripel called Curieux. If you're ever in Maine make sure to visit their amazing brewery.
We took the inspiration and ran with it, brewing our own Belgian-style Tripel and then ageing it in bourbon barrels for 9 to 12 months. Our first batch was aged in barrels from Port Chilkoot Distillery from Haines, Alaska. That first batch came out March 9, 2017, just a few days after International Tripel Day! Since then we've aged the beer in Basil Hayden, Woodford Reserve, and now Heaven Hill bourbon barrels.
Divine Intervention is our strongest beer, coming in at 11.5% ABV! It's definitely a sipping beer! We have been brewing this beer once a year ever since and it holds a special place in many of our customers and staffs hearts.
Our first batch of Divine Intervention. If you still have this bottle, you've got the original! Youc an tell by the hatched line marks.
A few years back, we brewed another Tripel beer, a bit of an experimental one, called Divine Caffeination. Here we took our empty barrels that previously held Divine Intervention and aged some raw coffee beans in them for 1-3 months. We rolled the barrel every so often so that the beans would soak in any whiskey and barrel-aged beer flavours. Then we got Firebean Coffee Roasters to roast the beans so that we could then add them to another batch of base Tripel. So Divine Caffeination was born! A tripel with barrel-aged coffee.
March 3rd is a great day to come out and try a Tripel at the brewery. Between 4-7 pm we'll be offereing free tasters.
Divine Caffeination - from Beer to Barrel - Barrel ot Bean - Bean to Beer!