Tripel Threat is a beautiful beer -- bright golden with a 1-inch head of foam and lots of carbonation bubbles rising to the surface. The aroma is big: lemon, banana, passion fruit, even bubblegum, and yeasty esters. With 10 percent alcohol by volume, this a major-league tripel, with an immense body and fruity profile marked by candi sugars and a lemon tang. Remarkably, there's almost no aftertaste.
The Audacity of Hops is an aggressive marriage of a Belgian-style IPA and a double IPA. The color of apricot nectar, this beer (8 percent ABV) has only a small -- but frothy -- head, which is unusual as Belgian IPAs go. The hop-forward aroma attacks immediately with notes of citrus fruit and Belgian yeast. Indeed, this is a hop bomb -- very dry, with a good dose of grapefruit and a longlasting bitterness that refuses to fade.
Bannatyne's Scotch Ale, a style also known as a wee heavy, is almost the opposite of those two. Dark brown with mahogany accents and a short, tightly beaded head, its aroma is a bold, sweet fusion of dark fruit, vanilla, and a bit of cherry. The beer (9.2 percent ABV) explodes with flavor: molasses, brown sugar, fig, prune, bready yeast, and warming alcohol -- however, it's not sweet. A world-class Scotch ale, Bannatyne's is immensely pleasurable on a cold night.
More on Cambridge Brewing Co. and its newly bottled beers in the 99 Bottles column in Saturday's Globe and on BostonGlobe.com...
Email me at greenlee@globe.com . Follow me on Twitter @SteveGreenlee .
Cambridge Brewing Co. has been pouring great beer in Kendall Square since 1989, but only recently did the brewpub begin bottling its beverages.