What is the difference between a blond beer and a tripel?

Yes. A tripel is golden blond and, according to the trade association Nederlandse Brouwers, falls under blond beer, in the heaviest alcohol class of that group.

Nederlandse Brouwers classifies blond beer by colour, from light blond via golden blond to dark blond, and within that distinguishes a class of 5 to 7 per cent and a class of 7 to 8 per cent and higher. Most tripels and many blond Trappist and abbey beers fall into that highest class.

In that classification, tripel is not a category next to blond, but its heavy branch. Reading blond on the label tells you nothing yet about the strength.

About one and a half per cent alcohol, if you follow the brewing guidelines: they put blond at 6 to 7.5 per cent and tripel at 7.5 to 9.5 per cent.

On the shelf in Bathmen the figures spread further. The 81 blond beers start at 4.5 per cent and run up to 11.5 per cent, with the median at 6.9 per cent. The 54 tripels start at 7.2 per cent and run up to 11 per cent, with the median at 8.5 per cent.

Forty-three blond beers stay below 7 per cent, and five tripels stay below 8 per cent. The difference between the two groups is a shift, not a boundary.

Because a brewer chooses what to call his beer. A heavy golden blond beer may be called blond, strong blond or tripel.

Of the 81 blond beers in Bathmen, 32 are at 7.2 per cent or higher, which is exactly the strength of the lightest tripel in the shop. The strongest blond beer on the shelf is at 11.5 per cent, making it stronger than any tripel we stock.

On labels you see that heaviness reflected in additions such as strong blond, sterk blond and imperial blond. Those designations are not defined anywhere either.

No. In the Netherlands the Warenwetbesluit Gereserveerde aanduidingen only defines pils, bock, oud bruin, low-alcohol beer and alcohol-free beer. Blond and tripel are not in it.

The decree defines beer as a drink from the alcoholic fermentation of wort, in which at least 60 per cent of the extract content of the wort before fermentation comes from barley or wheat malt. For pils, an original gravity of 11 to 13.5 per cent applies, for bock above 15 per cent and for oud bruin 7 to 11 per cent.

No such standard exists for blond and tripel. For these two, the alcohol percentage on the label is the only hard figure you can go by.

From the alcohol percentage, not the colour: blond and tripel sit in almost the same colour band, 4 to 6 SRM against 4.5 to 7 SRM.

As a practical guide: below 7 per cent you will find almost only blond, above 8 per cent almost only tripel and strong blond. Between 7 and 8 per cent a beer can be called either, and then the brewer decides what goes on the label.

Origin no longer helps to tell the two apart either. Of the 54 tripels in Bathmen, 27 come from Belgium and 26 from the Netherlands.

Just over two. A tripel of 8.5 per cent in a 33-centilitre bottle contains about 22 grams of alcohol, and a standard drink in the Netherlands counts as 10 grams.

A blond beer of 6.5 per cent in the same bottle comes to almost 17 grams, or just over one and a half standard drinks. In practice the difference between a blond and a tripel is half a standard drink per bottle.

De Gezondheidsraad heeft het drinkadvies in juni 2026 aangepast en stelt dat er geen veilige ondergrens voor alcoholgebruik is. Verkoop van alcohol aan mensen onder de achttien is niet toegestaan: NIX18.