Ath, Belgium, the City of Giants, is famous for its annual Parade of Giants. Every year, Goliath ââ¬â whose name is pronounced ‘Gouyasse’ in the local dialect ââ¬â leads the parade. The Brasserie des Géants (Giants’ Brewery), in Ath, didn’t think long before naming its first brew ‘Gouyasse.’ Gouyasse is a golden Belgian ale, and a nice one, at 6% alcohol by volume.
Only trouble is, the Gouyasse, at a respectable but not intimidating 6% abv, was not ferocious enough to carry the name of the mythical giant, especially here in the U.S., where we like our beers big ââ¬â the bigger the better. And so it was that we proposed to the brewery a stronger beer, with the name Goliath. They came back with Goliath Tripel, which they have also packaged for sale in Belgium. It’s become their biggest seller there in very short time.
Goliath is 9% alcohol by volume, a little more red in the face than your average tripel (almost an amber, really), nicely balanced with a bracing hop note versus a solid malt wallop. Goliath is the only Tripel in Belgium that is all-malt ââ¬â without any sugar or other additives in. (Everyone else uses some sugar to ‘thin out’ their Tripels, which gives them alcohol, without the body that you normally get from malt.) That means Goliath starts out a bit sweeter than some, but over time, as the live yeast in the bottle do their work, it gets drier and more punchy. The first batch, after about half a year in the bottle, is about where we want it, but it will probably become a greater beer as time goes by.
