Quad + 1 Fifth Anniversary
Spellbound Brewing

(750 ml bottle, no codes/dates, crown date 2019... split poured between a fat tulip and an etched La Trappe goblet)

L: dark burgundy-garnet liquid, good clarity; very tall, red-tinged tan foam, densely packed, bubbly center... suds stay long; a few rings of lace left... side note: looking front and center at the bottle label - why does the name of the beer disappear along the outer edges - lousy design (tighten it up, yo)

S: chocolate, caramel, dried apple, leather, sweet cigar... arguably as much barleywine-like in its aromas as a quad... very little spice - or it's at least pushed to the back... lovely little scent accents, but little depth or expressive dimension; rather dull... little apparent booze, aside from some perhaps floral phenols

T: charred, peppery spice first sip, with a long, luscious, leathery, lumbering malt swelling midway and slowly fading through the finish... aftertaste has that semi-dry choco-caramel raisin note from the smell; little booze presence (could just be remarkably well hidden)... some nutty, earthy yeast/fermentation artifacts seem to linger (bumpy fermentation?)

F: in the tulip, bit of a loosely-sudsy coat to its lightly-silky, medium-light bodied viscosity... little residual sugars left on the palate, little warmth builds... no peppery/spicy bite... rather mellow in the tulip, but a touch more boozy burn in the goblet

O: easy sipper... comes across as more of a dubbel/quad hybrid; not quite 10% abv??... full-flavored in its malt sludge, but lacking perhaps proper water chemistry to make its flavors pop ... goblet pour highlighted more of the malt sweetness, curiously didn't maintain the foam cap as well as, but was otherwise not much different than the tulip pour... decent try - please tweak the process, get some more jagged cuts going on (1640)