Barrel Release Belgian Quad
Obec Brewing

Sampling a cellar temp 750 ml bottle poured into my trusty snifter. Labels says 2021 bottle release. The beer pours a dark mahogany to cola color with a dense creamy beige head of 3 cm foaming up. This foam fades to a sturdy edge layer and large island with some scattered lattice forming on my glass as I swirl the beer.
Aroma is very sweet with dark malt, brown sugar , dark fruits, fig and raisin, plus a bit of candi sugar, like rock candy. No hint of hops on the nose nor any fusol notes of ABV.
First sip reveals a medium body with a slightly sticky texture and soft gentle carbonation.
Flavor is similar to the nose advertisement with malt forward features. I get some toffee and brown sugar with hints of raisin and some general sweetness. These sweet malts move to a bit of a bite and peppery spice which I attribute to ABV. Still no hop notes and only a little warming on the swallow.
This is a malt forward slightly boozy beer. It is sort of what I expected it to be when I opened the bottle tonight. I enjoy this one, even if it does take me quite a bit of time to finish the bottle.

Barrel Release Belgian Quad from Obec Brewing. 750 mL capped bottle from @snaotheus in NBW BIF 17. Reviewed 27/05/23 (Review 3114). Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Says “Special Barrel Release 2021” on the label. Stored at 34 degrees at home. Served at 58.2 degrees F in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 61.3 degrees F.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Amber Brown (SRM 18), cloudy.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), opaque. Under direct light, chocolate brown and opaque. When rear lite, same.
Head: Average (Maximum two cm, aggressive center pour), wheat, high density, quickly diminishing, reducing to a 0.3 cm crown and a thin partial cap.
Lacing – Good. Oddly, none from the first pour but the second glass yields a wide band of near-microscopic to small bubbles with some crude prominences.
Aroma – 3.5 – No hops, no yeast. Weak “dark fruit” and distinct ethanol (11.2 % ABV as marked on the label).
Flavor – 3.75 – Slightly sour but sweetens as it gets warmer. Very weak “dark fruit”, no hops, no yeast. No bourbon, no barrel. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl. Mild gastric warming but no ethanol flavor.
Palate – 3.75 – Medium; lightly syrupy; soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.75 Weak in all aspects other than the ABV which is well-hidden in the flavor and less so on the nose. May need to age a year or two more.