Grand Cru MMXVII Belgian Quad
Strange Land Brewery

 

 

This is the first bomber I've bought in probably a year...I was craving a quad and figured I'd give this a go since I enjoyed Strange Land's heavier maltier beers when I visited the taproom. Bottle is 22 fl oz, made of brown glass, and has an unbranded black pry-off pressure cap. Label design emphasizes black and sanguine. 2017 vintage (obviously).

8.7% ABV. 25 IBUs. "Belgian quad brewed with cognac, oak and tart cherry." "Ale." "Naturally conditioned in the bottle."

Served chilled and allowed to come to temperature over the course of consumption.

APPEARANCE: Head fills ~80% of the glass, suggesting overcarbonation. Fluffy and somewhat soft, but not the delicate creamy head one would find in the best expressions of the style. Retention would be impressive were the ABV higher; the head sticks around for a good ~8 minutes. Leaves wisps of lacing on the sides of the glass as the head recedes.

Body is a murky ugly dull amber-orange. Turbid and seemingly unfiltered. I see no yeast/lees within.

Lifeless in appearance, lacking the vibrant body and fragile head you'd find in Westvleteren 12, Rochefort 10, or St. Bernardus Abt 12.

AROMA: Fruit dominates, actually. Pomegranate seed, cherry, raspberry jam, fig, sugarplum, stonefruit. Apart from that, I get big malty sweetness but little else. I'm not finding any cognac or oak, except for maybe a hint of barrel sugar sweetness mixed in to that malty sweetness.

Lacks a recognizably Belgian yeast profile. Suggests a subdued and obviously Americanized attempt at a quadrupel lacking the body and subtlety of great examples of the style. Aromatic intensity is rather low for the style.

TASTE & TEXTURE: Murky, lacking dialed-in distinct flavours. Chewy malty sweetness collides with a hodgepodge of stonefruit, prunes, and cherry juice, Sweetness is too high and this lacks a recognizably Belgian yeast profile, making me wonder if Trappist high gravity yeast wasn't even used at all; it's underattenuated.

Slightly jammy, with its fruity notes dominating. Pomegranate seed is the most recognizable amongst them, but it's basically what I noted in the aroma.

No oak nor cognac manifests in the taste. It's a shame since they'd be welcome, but really there isn't a lot in the base beer for such notes to accentuate.

Not delicate or fragile on the palate like the best Belgian expressions of the quadrupel style. It's full-bodied and thick but has a weak presence on the palate. Not a chore to drink, but it's definitely heavy and filling. Overcarbonated. Unrefreshing.

OVERALL: Another mediocre stab at a quadrupel from an American brewery. Underattenuated and more evocative of cherry juice than subtle fruity esters from Belgian yeast. The cognac and oak it was ostensibly brewed with (whatever "brewed with" means in that context {I'm presuming they just threw chips in for a brief period of time}) are absent flavour-wise.

Strange Land makes a fine tripel, and because their Scottish ales were so on point I hoped this would be a great heavy malty brew. Unfortunately, this fails to live up to Strange Land's usual quality and isn't a beer I'd revisit or recommend to others. Indeed, one 22oz bottle is proving more than enough; I can't wait to finish this so I can crack open one of Boulevard's Sixth Glass Quadrupels.

C (2.83) / AVERAGE