La Trappe Quadrupel

Poured a ruddy brown with about a finger thick white head. The smell was pleasant with aromas of plums, fruit, apricot, and a bit of that cookie bakery smell. The flavor was also nice with much of the aroma coming though in the flavor. The plums were most predominate leading towards the malty cookie flavor. This was a nice quad that offered plenty in way of complexity.

This year’s bottle as a Konings Hoeven and I’m starting to wonder why I have been drinking all of those huge, hoppy beers and all of those imperial stouts. This beer pours a thick, tall head with a very dark, hazy brown liquid under. The nose is a sweet caramel-apple maltienss and the initial taste is the same. There are only slight hints of hops, and the mid palate and finish are just dry enough that this doesn’t leave a sugary-sweet after taste. This is a style that I am coming to like more and more, and I have been regularly surprised by the quality of this and other brews of its sort. Another keeper!

33cl bottle - shape and label different (and classier!) than the one pictured. Pours a nice hazy amber with a big, creamy off-white head with good retention and decent lacing. Aroma of yeast, orchard fruit and malt. Medium carbonation, smooth mouth feel. Heavy-bodied Belgian, err, Dutch, ale. Flavour is, again, orchard fruit, some caramel, and raisins. Nice citric note to improve drinkability. Different herbal spices in there, too. Sweet, but not overly so - and the finish is sour and dry. Lingering sour after taste, too. Alcohol is present (well, at 10 % abv), but not overwhelming. Agreeable Trappist quadrupel, "healthier" than some overly sweet dubbels and tripels I know from Belgium. Sessionability is, at this abv, necessarily limited. Complex, nicely balanced beer.

Bouteille 33cl. Gout très amer proche d’une triple avec des gouts de blés et peut être une peu de flocons d’avoine. La levure est très marquée avec une saveur fruitée-amer. Le côté alcoolique ressort de trop. Pas très equilibrée.

bottle. Poured reddish brown with an off-white head. Aroma is fruity and alcoholy. Medium mouthfeel with average carbonation. Flavour very sweet with roasted malt and raisin notes. The alcohol taste really overpowers this beer.

(Bottled) Poured deep amber and almost clear with small white head. Aroma contained malts, treacle, lightly chocolate and fruitiness. Full bodied and warming palate with lot of carbonation. Tasted of malts, chocolate, molasses, bitterness, treacle and lightly hops and alcohol. Malty and bitter aftertaste. Taste was a bit harsh, too. I think the beer would improve when aged.

Bottle. Pours amber, with an off white head. Aroma is caramel, malt, and dark fruit. Flavor is fruit, caramel, malt, spices, and alcohol. Medium body.

Bottle. Dark cloudy brown pour with a thick tan head. Aroma of raisins, caramel and Belgian yeast. Taste of roasted malt, raisins and other dark fruit, and sticky sugar. Full body hides the alcohol.