The Bar Towel

Sat down last night with 2 other buddies for a blind tasting of 7 Belgian Quads. These guys have been craft beer fans for close to 20 years, are BJCP certified judges with about 10 years experience, accomplished homebrewers, and one even has commercial brewing experience. So yeah, very knowledgable for what it is worth.

Of the 7 quads, all were right around the 2 year old mark, with one being 5 years old, and another being just 6 months old. 1 of them was a drainpour, but the rest all had enough good qualities to enjoy.

We only formally ranked the top 3, but I will give them to you in an "unofficial" ranking from worst to best.

7. Dieu du Ciel Rigor Mortis Abt - vegetal, unpleasant phenloic spice, and hot alcohol. 2 years of aging, and it still sucks. I tried a bottle about 2 months ago... it was a drainpour then, and it was a drainpour now. I have never liked this beer.

6. Westvleteren 12 - flavour profile is good, but too restrained for a quad. Still has a lot of alcohol heat and taste despite being aged for 2 years. Never been impressed with this beer.

5. My old homebrew quad - 5 year old bottle, this was my first attempt at a quad. Almost 12% abv, but not a trace of heat. Huge fruity nose with aged sherry notes. Great beer, but not as elegant/complex as others.

4. Real Ale Black Quadrupel - 2 year old bottle from this fine craft brewery in Blanco, TX primarily known for their american ales/lagers. This is a fantastic quad, but is a little out of the ordinary, as they add black patent malt. As such, it is a lot darker than the others, and has a unique nutty taste with a hint of smoke in the finish. So yeah, it doesn't have the typical flavour profile, but it was done intentially, and was very well executed. Didn't make our top 3 because it was "non-traditional," but a fantastic beer to drink. Very impressive, most US craft brewers make terrible belgian ales.

Our top 3 was real close, we each came up with our own ranking, and then assigned 3pts for 1st, 2pts for 2nd, and 1pt for 3rd.

3. My new homebrew quad (5pts) - only 6 months old, but already in fine form. In addition to the typical dark fruits, this one also had notes of cherries, apples, oranges, tropical fruits, and a hint of banana in the finish. Quite unique, but still unmistakable as a good quad.

2. Rochefort 10 (6pts) - I am always a sucker for aged Rochefort 10, their yeast strain produces those distinct fruity esters that I absolutely love. Gobs of plums and raisins, with orange and ginger spice for complexity. World class in every way, never had a bad experience with an aged bottle of this.

1. St Bernardus Abt 12 (7pts) - Another 2 year old bottle, and again, this is the sweet spot for this beer. Complex, refined and elegant. Creamy mouthfeel, but not heavy. Not as fruit forward as Rochefort 10, but more balanced.

These kind of tastings are tons of fun. You sure do learn a lot about subtle nuances by going back and forth between the samples. I have maintained for years that aged R10 and StB12 are by far the best quads in the world, everything else pales in comparison. Everytime I do side by side tastings, this always gets proven, and one of my homebrewed quads usually places right behind them.

Thanks for this, just put an Abt 12 in the fridge to chill for a bit, best before date of 2015, if I recall correctly that's 3 years old??

Yup, should be a beauty.

Totally agree that they are the two best in the world. For me R10 edges out St. Bernies ever so slightly, but as you mentioned, very close.

Some of you may recall that when we first brought in Westy 12a number of years ago, Volo had a similar blind tasting which I believe about 40 people paid to attend. Their list also included Achel Extra and Chimay Blue but obviously none of the homebrews. In that tasting the Achel Extra was #1 and Westy 12 was #2.

esprit wrote:Some of you may recall that when we first brought in Westy 12a number of years ago, Volo had a similar blind tasting which I believe about 40 people paid to attend. Their list also included Achel Extra and Chimay Blue but obviously none of the homebrews. In that tasting the Achel Extra was #1 and Westy 12 was #2.

Cool, I couldn't get the Achel Extra for this tasting.

I can't stress how important the age of a quad is, they need to be similar to make a fair comparison. And the commercial quads don't come together for at least a year; I like to always sit on them for 2 years before opening, it seems to be their sweet spot. I would also say that there can be huge batch to batch variation in quads due to the high alcohol and limited production.

I participated in a blind tasting about 6 years ago with Westy, R10, StB12 and Rigor Mortis. Rigor Mortis came out on top, but we later learned it was a rigged tasting; everything but the Rigor Mortis was 6+ years old and had been improperly stored. Pretty smart on behalf of the DDC rep that setup the tasting...

Mark, what is your opinion of La Trappe Quad? We have it, StB 12 and R10 available in Ontario at the moment.

markaberrant wrote:Our top 3 was real close, we each came up with our own ranking, and then assigned 3pts for 1st, 2pts for 2nd, and 1pt for 3rd.

3. My new homebrew quad (5pts)
2. Rochefort 10 (6pts)
1. St Bernardus Abt 12 (7pts)

midlife crisis wrote:Mark, what is your opinion of La Trappe Quad? We have it, StB 12 and R10 available in Ontario at the moment.

Not a fan, just sorta sweet, lacking in complexity.

Thanks.

markaberrant wrote:

midlife crisis wrote:Mark, what is your opinion of La Trappe Quad? We have it, StB 12 and R10 available in Ontario at the moment.

Not a fan, just sorta sweet, lacking in complexity.

i've never seen the charm with La Trappe's quad. always tastes quite light compared to the rest.
some claim it ages really nicely.

also, for Westy 12, the sweet spot's apparently year 5-6 of cellaring. i've had Westy fresh at the monestary and it was ok. nothing special. also drank it as table beer in Belgium and, again, it's good but not amazing. but i've had aged westy before and it does get the delicious brown sugar notes with time.

i have a stash of Westy 12 and 8 in my cellar that's been sleeping for 3 years. will let it nap for another 2 before touching any.

Achel Brun Extra - i've had it aged one year and i thought it was incredible. probably my favourite out of all of them. rich, chocolately.

St Berny Abt 12 - the 2 year aged version becomes more complex than the fresh version. really rounds out nicely. curious to see how it progresses.

Rochforte 10 - i find that it's good to go when it's bottled. i don't recall tasting any or much difference when aged.

i would also throw in Cuvee van de Kaizer Blaw into the equation. it ages incredibly well and gets those rich, sweet sour cherry notes after 2 years.

atomeyes wrote:i have a stash of Westy 12 and 8 in my cellar that's been sleeping for 3 years. will let it nap for another 2 before touching any.

Achel Brun Extra - i've had it aged one year and i thought it was incredible. probably my favourite out of all of them. rich, chocolately.

i would also throw in Cuvee van de Kaizer Blaw into the equation. it ages incredibly well and gets those rich, sweet sour cherry notes after 2 years.

Yes, my remaining bottles of Westy 12 are in the "long term aging" section of my cellar.

Achel Brun Extra doesn't show up round these parts, but always enjoy the Brun.

Kaizer Blaw is amazing. I have bottles going back to 2006, will do a vertical tasting in a year or two. I do feel it is a bit more a specialty belgian than a typical quad; huge body and not as dry, some reference books call it a Belgian Barleywine.

A few aging questions while we're on the topic---

I'm curious if you guys are basing your aging numbers on production dates or just how long you actually cellared a beer after purchase?

My current Roch 10 has a bb of 08 04 16---would any of you know how old that make it already?

I think Chimay does a 5 year span for its bb dates, but I'm not sure about Roch.

Rochefort has a 5-year BB date, so yours was bottled April 2011. I base the "age" from the bottling/bb date, not when I purchased it.

^Interesting, thanks.

Checking some other bottles of Roch I now realize I was looking at the wrong numbers (there's two sets in the bb box). So the bb is actually 21 08 2018, which makes the beer 4 months old (which makes sense, as it was a recent purchase). Now I'll let my other Roch bottles wait until Aug 2015. However, I do have a chimay blue that is approaching its 5 yr bb, so it'll be up any day now.