It's A Trappe - Bourbon Barrel Aged
J. Wakefield Brewing

750 mL bottle. Deep amber body with a thin collar. Big bourbon aroma. Vanilla, whiskey, oak. Sweet brown sugar. Tastes very sweet up front. Brown sugar sweetness. Bourbon kicks in. Some dark fruits and a little oak. Heavy and sugary. Low carbonation. Way too sweet for my tastes.

Bottle: Poured a deep brown color ale with a nice large brown foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of candi sugar, light dry fruits and bourbon notes. Taste is also a mix of bourbon notes, residual candi sugar, and dry fruits with some candy-like ester. Body is pretty full for style with excellent carbonation and light alcohol notes are also perceptible. Excellent mix of bourbon with a great quad base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was able to get a few pretty good pours of this during our Houston Gingerman Share.

A: Pours a dark brown with a small beige head. No lace, but the beige foam sticks throughout.
S: I don't get much in the nose. Burnt caramel sugar, vanilla, and oak/wood. I don't get much, if any Belgian character, outside of a sugary sweetness. Mostly just barrel aromas, which are not bad but was hoping for more.
T: like the nose, there is not much of a Belgian Quad /BSDA character at all. Outside of burnt caramel sweetness, vanilla, and oak flavors.
M/O: A medium body and low on the carbonation end. Seems a little thin to me. The alcohol is well hidden, so this is fairly easy and smooth to sip on. Though the style is all wrong here, and it is fairly one noted anyway.

I don't get any esters or body that would help this out. A review of the base "It's A Trappe" mentions cherries where added, which if that is the case, there is not any evidence of that what so ever. It seems like a relatively nondescript strong ale in bourbon barrels. The only real character is caramel/vanilla sweetness and wood. While not bad in that regard, just ho hum overall.

 

 

The beer almost more like an English barleywine than a quad. Rich notes of toffee and sweet brown sugar throughout, as dark fruits with bourbon soaked plums and figs. The beer then has a woody and earthy quality that again hints of a BA Barleywine than a traditional Belgian style quad.

Nevertheless, wonderful complexities from the barrel with bourbon and vanilla as the beer is also dangerous for its ABV.