Meesterstuk 2018
Jopen Bier BV Haarlem

 

330ml bottle - an 'oatmeal Quadrupel'. Why doe this one's name remind of some character on Rick & Morty?

This beer pours a clear, dark red-brick amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy tan head, which leaves some decent defrosting back windshield pattern lace around the glass as it slowly and evenly subsides.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, those boozy toffee candies at Yuletide, an indistinct black stone fruitiness, some dank under the basement stairs musty esters, marzipan, and very tame earthy, leafy, and musky floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, reduced brown sugar syrup, some plum, fig, and date dark Middle Eastern fruitiness, a touch of slightly phenolic and spicy yeast, oily bar-top nuts, and more well-understated earthy, musty, and lightly soused-up floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite laid-back in its Continental-seeming frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and generally smooth, with a wee air creaminess (perhaps oat-borne, I can't really say) rising from the ashes as this thing warms up a tad. It finishes off-dry, the malty, frooty, and otherwise sugary essences presiding.

Overall - this is indeed a pleasant enough flavoured Quad, with the saccharine additions more noticeable than the coriander spice ones. Actually rather easy to drink, given the genially masked, if strangely determined, 11.11% ABV. Worth checking out.