Southampton Abbot 12

Deep brown in color with a thin off-white head this dissipated. The nose is dominated with sweet caramel, raisin, chocolate and roasted malt. In the mouth it was medium to full-bodied, rich and dense. The palate was also sweet and came off candied. While balanced it was definitely an end of the night beer.

dark brown with mild head for the style. flavor is dominated by the dark candi sugar. some crystal malt also in there. no real hop character. the alcohol is definitely present adding a complexity. this is a very good example of an abbey quad, but my bottle needed to age two years or so for the candi sugar to mellow to allow some more complexities to develop. a ton of potential though

Pours clear amber with copper hues. A half inch head of white quickly dissolved leaving behind a few dots of lacework and a ring around a placid surface. Aromatics lead off with raisins, sweet toffee, juicy malt, grape jam, and caramel. Hints of orange marmalade, dark rum, and vanilla follow through. Medium bodied and quite sticky. A bit syrupy due to low carbonation. Sweet malt and candi sugar lead off the pallet along with rum-soaked raisins, sugared caramel, and brown sugar. Some mild alcohol follows through on the throat. Finishes with faint orangy notes, juicy malt, and more raisins. This beer has a great nose, but the carbonation is way low for the style and the pallet is overly sweet.

Bottle at Chris o’s…copper,sweet hop, yeastybreasy hop nice juicy belgian hop

Bottle. Gusher! The cork popped out as I was untwisting the cage. Pours a dark murky brown with a huge, thick creamy tan head. Aroma of apple, pear, dark fruits, squash and other vegetables, and light spices. Flavor is extremely sweet with a lot of squash, almost soda-like. This definitely needs some age on it because it is super super sweet. Hard to enjoy with all the sugar.

Numerous 750ml bottles. Each bottle changes in character, in particular the ’sweetness’ variable. First pour is dark mahogany with coca cola cherry red highlighst and a really big head. Hard to get a grasp of all the flavor components, but there’s alot of rich, sweet mal, and dark fruits -- raisins, prunes, sweet figs, and caramel butterscotch candy. A bit of rum creeps in. The second pour is much cloudier -- as with all 750 Southamptons, thick and chewy, an elegant abbey-style quadruple. There’s a faint sense of oak and hickory in there, but the swetness takes that over. The mouthfeel could be creamier, especially near the top of the bottle.

Bottled. Amber colour, small beige head. Aroma is raisins, toffee, alcohol and some sweet malts. Raisins, some sweet nectary notes, alcohol and fruityness in the flavour. Wellbalanced, and very drinkable brew.

Amber/brown pour with thick white head. Rather thin mouth feel for a quad, but still very sticky and alcoholic. Heavy on the spice and exotic sweetness, lacking what other quads bring to the table.