This is a treat for Victoria's beer geeks, La Trappe Quadrupel is coming to town. The Belgian Quad/Abt style ale is not actually a recognized style of beer. For those keeping track, the lighter quadrupels are lumped under Belgian Specialty Ale (16E) along with most of the Unibroue beers. While the darker Abt (Abbott) is placed in the Belgian Dark Strong Ale (18E) category. Other notable Abt styles include the Rochefort 10, Westy 12 and Chimay Blue. The name designation 'quad' refers to the fact that these beers are stronger than Belgian triples. As the nomenclature denotes, this a formidable beverage.

La Trappe is brewed by Dutch Trappist brewery Koningshoeven. The most popular bottles available  from this brewery are the Quad and the infamous tripel. It might surprise you that this is the most prolific Trappist brewery. They brew almost 10 different beers; my favourite was their bock.

La Trappe = 8/10



This beer pours with a daunting fluffy head and spicy alcohol nose. Further aroma complexities includes oranges, peaches and that chacteristic Belgian yeast. Each creamy, warming sip delivers a linear taste. It is all ripe pit fruits such as peaches, pears, pale prunes and almonds. There is a slight earthy and spicy hop ending tempered with orange syrup. 

Taste +4
Aftertaste +1
Alcohol Content +1 10%
Value +1
Appearance +1

Glassware: It must be a chalice. All Trappist/Abbey ales need a wide brim to accommodate the massive fluffy head and mammoth aromatics.

Food pairings: Cheese: Blue cheese or anything wash rind. Pair with light, fattier meats such as wild birds, turkey and perhaps fatty fish with a light fruit sauce. Dessert options are almond tarts and marzipan. For the Vegan/Veggies out there, think white bean casserole with marjoram and easy on the sage. Personally, I would love to try this next to a Voodoo Doughnut Captain my Captain.

Cellar: Some of the booziness might fade to let the syrupy fruits come forward, but I wouldn't do it.

I got my bottle early. Liquor Plus will be getting a shipment of these in the near future. Thanks Rod for the advance bottle.

Quadruple awesomeness. Then they take an already plummy beer and add a bunch of plums to the mash: brilliant! Great, now I am starting to sound like Dan.

Baby Tree (Pretty Things) = 7/10
Ratebeer 3.55 95th  percentile
Beer Advocate 86%

This just reeks of every kind of dark fruit you can name. And the best game you can name, is the good old hockey game. Mix this with a chewy, slick sip, low carbonation and you might swear it was a homemade rum pot. Yet you are confused: where did this herbal, mineral and alcohol warmth come from? Not sure, but it is not going away.

Taste +3
Aftertaste +1
Alcohol Content +1 9%
Value +1
Appearance +1 (always great art and description)

Other Quad reviews
Ommegang Three Philosophers
St. Bernardus Abt 12 (currently on tap at Clive's thanks to ME!)

Another overpriced Bier Markt brew. Sometimes when you see a good beer you just gottaa...

St. Bernardus Abt 12 = 8/10

Ratebeer 4.15 100th percentile
Beer Advocate A

Painful vinous nose is not very appealing; the underlying fruitiness is what draws you in. Massive dark fruit action: prunes, plums, raisins. Mix this with green apple, candied sugar and nail polish and we have a winner of a quadrupel.

Taste +4
Aftertaste +1
Alcohol Content +1 10.5%
Value +1
Appearance +1 (label recognized by beer geeks everywhere)

Koningshoeven Quadrupel
Ommegang Three Philosophers
St. Bernardus Tripel

Ommegang Three Philosophers
Belgian Style Quadrupel

Ratebeer 3.83 98th percentile
Beer Advocate A-

Taste +5

It is great to have an epic beer early in the year, it sets a good tone for 2010. This is mild on the nose, but you are graced with slight cherries, sherry, plum, raisins, nuts and alcohol. The taste is like a rum pudding. It is tart with yeast, dilute wine grape juice and dark fruits. It tastes very similar to Rochefort 10.

Aftertaste +2

It has a yeasty caking with tart dark fruits that lasted a very long time. The alcohol warmth persisted even longer.

Alcohol Content +1 9.8%

Gotta watch this one; it is smooth and creamy. It would be very easy to drink the whole magnum yourself.

Value +1

Simply delicious with a great corked bottle presentation. It was a real show off beer.

Ingame Enhancement +1

No gaming, it was Holiday dinner time with the family. This brew was a winner, it really impressed my Father. Today was also the day I aquired the Tactical Nuclear Penguin.

Overall 10/10

A good, strong malty beer. The flavours are dark and complex. Well worth sampling many, many times.

Brother Thelonius
Koningshoeven Quadrupel
Rochefort 10