In one of the my more recent posts, I politely harangued American craft drinkers for sticking to a rigid (and greatly fictitious) style mythology when describing European beers. Specifically, I pointed out that the "Belgian" quadruple ales are a recent (not traditional) description first used by Dutch (not Belgian) monks. That beer was La Trappe Quadrupel by the Koningshoeven monastery in the Netherlands. Starting in 2010, the monks have brewed a special version of this quad aged in wooden barrels. Here's the fun part: the type of barrels changes wildly from batch to batch, as you can see here. Fresh unused wooden barrels, white and red wine barrels, cognac, Scotch whisky---it's all there. Sometimes they use barrels made from woods other than oak, which is quite rare.
I recently managed to try a bottle of Batch 14, which (per the website) was 7% aged in acacia wood barrels, 11% aged in new oak barrels, and the remaining 82% cognac limousine oak barrels.
La Trappe Oak-aged Quad pours out a muddy and slightly cloudy red hue. The beer does not appear to be very carbonated; upon prying off the cork (which took a good ten minutes to do) not more than a quiet hiss of egressing CO2 greeted my ears. Barrel-aged beers are often fairly flat, so I can't fault the brewers here.
It's been years since I have tried the original La Trappe Quad, so I can't say if they altered the base beer much for this version. What I can say is that this is one of the best-smelling quads I have ever tried. The traditional aromas of a quad---namely figs, Belgian dark sugar, and some nebulous dark fruits---wonderfully meld with the brighter flavors imparted by the barrels. There is plenty of bright, sharp fruit a la fine brandy or cognac, with an appetizing suggestion of golden raisins to boot. A faint hint of oaky vanilla sneaks through after a few minutes.
The aroma faithfully translates to the taste buds. I taste golden raisins, figs, vanilla, Belgian sugar and fiery brandy or cognac. Additional flavors of apples, plums, and grapes round out a sensory profile that definitely leans toward the brighter side of the quad spectrum, with cognac layered over everything.
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| The actual percentage of cognac barrel is 82%, per their website. |
The texture is pitch perfect for the style. Based on what I wrote above one would likely guess this is a sweet beer. It is sweet, but the character of the sweetness puts virtually American quads to shame. It is juicy in feel, not syrupy.
Profoundly fruity and complicated in profile, Batch 14 is something of a beer delicacy. This is too expensive to warrant frequent purchases but I will definitely look for another batch in the future to compare.
