smellysell
Go Vols!!!
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2007
- Messages
- 9,915
My Secret Santa over on BA hooked me up with this one, which I had never even heard of before. Of course I'm always excited to try a new quad though, escpecially one crafted in Belgium.
Style – Quadrupel
ABV – 12%
Brewed In – Harelbeke-Stasegem, Belgium
Availability – Year Round
Score - 9/10
Appearance
It sounded like a shotgun when I popped the top off of this with the trusty old Bic, and then proceeded to gush excruciatingly out of the top of the bottle. Once it finally slowed down I poured it into my brand new Boulevard Smokestack Goblet (thanks Pete!). It is very cloudy, yet the reddish-brown color almost glows and reminds me a lot of a Flanders. This is just the first of many similarities I notice between this and a nice Flanders. The head is thin and an austere white. It dissipates almost immediately, but surprisingly leaves fairly dense lacing.
Smell
The aroma is very in your face, with loads of dark fruit in the forefront. Raisins, plums, and an earthy funkiness. With everything going on, the one thing that is noticeably absent is any presence of alcohol.
Taste
Initially there is a light, caramel malt sweetness, which as it migrates across the tongue evolves into dark fruit, most notably raisins. There is also the typical Belgian yeast spiciness along with apple through the middle. It finishes with some Flanderesque tart cherries. The complexity and balance are astounding, yet the flavors are a bit more subdued than ideally I would like.
Feel
The feel is incredibly smooth and creamy. A touch more carbonation would be an improvement as there is at best very little, but I think a lot was probably lost with all the gushing when I opened the bottle.
Overall
This wasn’t what I was expecting at all, but nonethelesss was great. It’s almost a cross between a quad and a Flanders in many ways. It never ceases to amaze me how the quads crafted in Belgium can have such huge ABV, yet somehow mask it completely from the flavor. To me this is one of the qualities that seems to pretty regularly set them apart from their American counterparts. I could drink way too many of these and get into all sorts of trouble.
Style – Quadrupel
ABV – 12%
Brewed In – Harelbeke-Stasegem, Belgium
Availability – Year Round
Score - 9/10
Appearance
It sounded like a shotgun when I popped the top off of this with the trusty old Bic, and then proceeded to gush excruciatingly out of the top of the bottle. Once it finally slowed down I poured it into my brand new Boulevard Smokestack Goblet (thanks Pete!). It is very cloudy, yet the reddish-brown color almost glows and reminds me a lot of a Flanders. This is just the first of many similarities I notice between this and a nice Flanders. The head is thin and an austere white. It dissipates almost immediately, but surprisingly leaves fairly dense lacing.
Smell
The aroma is very in your face, with loads of dark fruit in the forefront. Raisins, plums, and an earthy funkiness. With everything going on, the one thing that is noticeably absent is any presence of alcohol.
Taste
Initially there is a light, caramel malt sweetness, which as it migrates across the tongue evolves into dark fruit, most notably raisins. There is also the typical Belgian yeast spiciness along with apple through the middle. It finishes with some Flanderesque tart cherries. The complexity and balance are astounding, yet the flavors are a bit more subdued than ideally I would like.
Feel
The feel is incredibly smooth and creamy. A touch more carbonation would be an improvement as there is at best very little, but I think a lot was probably lost with all the gushing when I opened the bottle.
Overall
This wasn’t what I was expecting at all, but nonethelesss was great. It’s almost a cross between a quad and a Flanders in many ways. It never ceases to amaze me how the quads crafted in Belgium can have such huge ABV, yet somehow mask it completely from the flavor. To me this is one of the qualities that seems to pretty regularly set them apart from their American counterparts. I could drink way too many of these and get into all sorts of trouble.
