Prinsipia
Brewmaster Jack

Dark mahogany color, looks opaque in a glass; thin to patchy head. Nice aroma; dark malt tones. Moderately sweet and boozy flavor; dark pitted fruit notes; dark cocoa suggestions; whiskey. Medium-heavy body; smooth and slick; a very light dryness undercutting the sweetness.

A rather light-weight quadruple, in my opinion. The taste and mouthfeel or slightly above average yet the appearance and aroma are rather mundane.

Pouring temperature: 42 °F; bottling info: n/a
Source: unknown (though likely Tavour)

Solid but lacks depth of the belgian originals.

 

22 ounce bottle into a goblet. Had 12/1/18.

Pours darker for the style, kind of a cola color, mostly opaque with no head and a few blobs of lacing. Aromas of grapes, dates, malt, figs, some caramel. The flavor is pretty similar- grapes, malt, figs, dates, light plums, caramel, some raisins. It’s pretty sweet, yet kind of earthy- especially on the finish. Smooth, a decent body, a bit under carbonated.

Got this on vacation, not sure how old it is. It’s fairly simple for the style, nothing to point at or get excited about. Not bad, but probably would not buy again.

 

 

 

 

Look: Extremely dark brown, verging on black. One finger of bubbly tan head with middling retention.

Smell: Plums, chocolate, cherries, dates. Rich and fruity.

Taste: Like the nose, chocolate-covered fruit. Sweet, but not cloying.

Mouthfeel: A little thin, with high carbonation.

Overall: While it may not look impressive in a glass, Prinsipia is an incredible beer and one of the best quads I've ever had. I wish I had a whole cellar of these bottles.

 

 

 

$ 9.77 (Including shipping)/capped bomber ($ 0.444/oz) from Tavour, Seattle, WA.
Undated bottle, stored at 42 degrees and served at 60 degrees in a hand-washed and hand-dried Jester King snifter.
Appearance – 3.5.
Body – Dark brown/black, opaque. When held to the light, there is very little penetration making it a deep red-amber.
Head – None – fizzy when pouring (Aggressive center pour), medium brown, head is gone by the end of the pour.
Lacing – None.
First pour – Dark brown, clear.
Aroma – 4 – Dates and plums, caramelized sugar.
Flavor – 4 – Mostly follows the nose. Sweet but not cloying. Dark fruits, mostly dates, with some lesser flavors of plums and figs, not detecting any cherries, biscuit, or toffee. Ends slightly sweet. No hops, no alcohol (11.5% ABV), no diacetyl, no dimethylsulfide.
Palate – 3.5 - Medium, creamy, fizzy.
Impression and summation – 4 – The whole is greater than the sum (or in this case, average) of the parts. The fizziness and lack of head detract from the appearance. The aroma is typical for quads, minus the yeastiness that is frequently present. The flavor is good although I can’t detect some of the flavors alleged to be present. The palate seems a bit thin, a bit less than full, and the fizziness is distracting. Overall, however, this is a very passable quad, as in “Please pass me another!”.

Pouring a cellar temperature 22 oz bottle into my snifter. The beer pours a dark mahogany color with some deep garnet highlights. A fizzy beige head of 2 cm foams up and fades to the thinnest of edge layers. The aroma is lots of malt with caramel and dark fruit. I have some raisin and plums with a bit of molasses and brown sugar. A very sweet malty nose with no presence of hops nor anything to give away the booze in terms of any fusol notes.
The first sip reveals a lighter body than anticipated and almost nonexistent carbonation. The texture is a little slick, but in general the physical traits make this an easy drinking beer.
The flavor is fairly sweet with dark fruit dominating. I get plums, red grapes, and raisins pushing through with a bit of molasses and brown sugar. I dont get any hops here either and the alcohol is well hidden making this big beer easy to drink.
Im very happy to have tried this beer and definitely feel the booze as I am almost done with the bottle. This is a big beer that drinks easy and is a malt lovers brew. I find it to be more of a english barleywine flavor profile than a belgian quad. I anticipate more white grape and candi sugar notes in a quad, not saying this isnt a great beer, but dont go in thinking about typical quad brew.

 

Poured from 22oz bottle into a tulip.

Appearance: rich, dark red-brown hue with a clear body and red highlights when held up to the light. Unfortunately, there is exactly zero head to this beer; it looks like flat coca-cola from a head standpoint. The color of the body is great, though.

Smell: sweet and malty with a bit of dark-fruit character, appropriate to the style. There's a little raisin, bread and a touch of molasses, but the intensity is a bit low-volume for my taste.

Taste: sweet, with raisin and cherry character; maybe a little tobacco in there as well. It may just be the lack of carbonation that contributed to the aroma not getting displayed properly, but the flavors are nice and quite to-style. I like it.

Mouthfeel: this beer isn't entirely flat, but it takes a lot to coax some carbonation out of it. It could use some work in this area.

Overall: I really want to like this beer; like I said, the flavor is there. But they really need to get their carbonation sorted out on this one. There was a slight "ksshhh" when I opened the bottle, so it would not seem that the bottle was leaking; I can only guess at the cause of this problem.

 

Poured into a chalice, the appearance was a dark brown color with some black hues closer to the center. No head or lace.
The aroma had a nice meshing of raisins/dates/figs to some brown sugar, black cherries, toffee, earthy/Belgian spice, slight whiff of crushed coriander, light vanilla and a little bit of biscuit.
The flavor was moderately sweet with an evident little bit of spice seemingly coming to balance a bit more as it warmed. Nice semi-sweet to earthy and Belgian spicy aftertaste.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied causing it to be a nice sipper. Spicy harshness does come in nicely to cause that back of the throat earthy grab like many quads tend to do. Carbonation felt on par. ABV felt appropriate.
Overall, aromas and flavors are what really make this beer. Mouthfeel and appearance could be a bit tweaked, I'm used to seeing some head in this style. I'd still give this another shot.

 

 

Pours into a chalice a deep walnut brown with a thinner light beige head that is gone pretty quickly.The candied sugar comes thru in the nose with mild yeast esters and nutty malts.The label is correct in saying the special yeast yield's cherry flavors that really stand out,brown sugar,and fruit cake-like notes as well.There is a drying earthiness that really shows thru in the finish.The flavors are nice and complex,it may lack just a little in looks and smell but it's a solid domestic made quad here.

 

 

 

A: The beer is very dark brownish black in color. It poured with some tan wispy lacing on the surface and a collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Light aromas of dark fruits are present in the nose—plums seem to stand out in particular.
T: The taste follows the smell and has lots of flavors of plums and other dark fruits along with some hints of dark malts. Slight hints of beet sugar are perceptible.
M: It feels medium- to full-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer does a very good job at masking the alcohol from the taste.

Serving type: bottle

 

 

 

 

This is a bit strange as there is a spicy citrus smell to it, definitely not expected with a quad. This was aged in Tennessee Whiskey barrels and I expected a different smell.

Look: Dark brown as expected with a nice head that actually disappears quite quickly.

Smell: Strange citrus smell but is very soft and not really taking over.

Taste: Here is where it is distinctly a quad with the flavors and boldness expected. Based purely on the taste I would recommend this as long as the initial smell doesn't put you off.

Good overall and I will go back for more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No bottling date but I believe it to be a few weeks old.

A: Dark brown pour with a small fizzy medium brown head. Head fizzes out fast like soda, leaving no lacing and sparse head retention.

S: Huh. Smells like grape juice. Sweet Welch's grape juice. Some other indistinct berries in there. Not bad, just unusual and unexpected.

T: Huh, again. Tart grapes and berries in general. Kinda musty and ...odd. A little bit of....cough syrup?

M: Medium/heavy bodied.

O: This one's a bit off. Doesn't necessarily taste infected but I don't think "old grape juice" is what they were going for here...maybe? I had the barrel-aged version of this, it was way better but still a bit odd. I poured it out, not a pleasant brew to drink.

 

Dark fruit, candied fruit, cane sugar, Belgian yeast that brings a honey, banana and bubblegum flavor. Big beefy feel accentuated by the alcohol warmth. Sip accordingly.