Grand Cru Quadrupel
Brewery Ardennes

Appearance: The color is right, but that's about it as while the body is a dark, opaque brown, it produced barely even a coating of carbonation, and thus no lace or retention to speak of. Belgian styles tend to be very high carbonation, so it's absence here is acute.

Smell: It needed quite a lot of warming to come out, when it does it does have quite a bit of booziness to it, but raisin, toffee malt and maybe some coriander. Needs more potency.

Taste: Chewy toffee malt to start but then turns to a grape and raisin wine middle with dark chocolate and herbals hops to round things off. It's solid although I've had far diverse quads.

Mouthfeel: Aftertaste is predominantly raisin and dark chocolate. The lackluster carbonation and complete lack of head don't do it any favors. The transitioning is decent, so take that with what you will. The lack of carbonation is really hurting the offering.

Drinkability: The body is somewhere between heavy and medium so it's a bit lighter as a quad but that's ok. One thing I do like is that it doesn't have that dry yeast note which is a good change of pace and lets it be a bit more refreshing.

Final Thoughts: This fared a lot better then their Dubbel, and for a hard to nail style, I applaud the effort. It's so easy to try to do too much with a Belgian style and throw the whole thing off. This one played it safe and turned out well, save that it was flat.

Draft pour as part of a flight at the brewery. Pours a dark amber color with a medium head. Aroma and flavor feature raisin, Belgian candi sugar, and more acidity than I expected. It's an okay style example but could be much better.

Poured from a bottle into a chalice glass
Appearance – The beer pours a deep ruby reddish-brown color with a one finger head of tan colored foam. The head has a fantastic level of retention, fading very slowly over time and leaving tons of foamy lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma is rather massive of a sweet candied sugar smell along with other dark fruit aromas of plum, raisin, and currant. Along with these smells are some light roasted malt and a good showing of yeast, clove, and coriander. Some bubblegum and black pepper mingle in there as well, with other notes of char and a touch of smoke. Overall, quite inviting.
Taste – The taste starts much more malty and less sweet than I would have anticipated form the nose. It begins with a dark roasted malt flavor paired with some coffee and toast. While less sweet than the nose leads one to believe, there is a good showing of candied sugar and some of the darker fruits of plum and currant that were in the nose. There is also some wood and char upfront, as well as some yeastcake, clove, and pepper, all of which grow stronger as the taste advances. Notes of earthiness and some red wine flavors come on at the end, bittering the taste a bit more and mixing with the rest to leave a roasty and slightly more tanniny like taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is somewhat thicker and fuller with a carbonation level that is rather sparkly and effervescent. A bit thinner of a body may have been slightly better, but overall pretty nice for the darker flavors.
Overall – A bit on the heavier and roastier side for a Quad, but very drinkable. At least worth a try.

 

I am sampling a 375ml bottle at cellar temp and poured into a chalice. Picked up this bottle at the brewery a week ago. No date stamp on the label or logo. The beer pours surprisingly dark coffee color with a creamy khaki colored head of about 5 cm. This foam fades to a sturdy edge layer that sticks around through the sampling, very dense lattice that sticks to the glass when I swirl.
Aroma is some prunes and brown sugar mixing together with a little more general dark fruit and I do get some dark chocolate too. No hop character comes through at all and the ABV is totally hidden, even at 9.5% on the nose.
First sip reveals a medium body with very fine tingly carbonation and smooth texture. This beer drinks pretty easy on the physical traits.
Flavor is some dark fruit with raisin and prunes and again a decent hit of chocolate and some brown sugar too. Flavor finishes with some fruitiness and again, no hop character anywhere. Booze is hidden with no warming nor any peppery bite. A little darker than I anticipated for a quad, but a tasty beer that has a lot of things that work and make this an enjoyable sampling. Glad to have picked up this bottle.

 

 

500 ml corked and caged bottle. Dated November 04 2021

Pours extremely dark brown, almost black. Layer of creamy off-white colored head. Decent head retention. As it warms, pleasant rich aroma of dark caramel, brown sugar, a bit of toasted marshmallow. Taste is similar, but not overly sweet. Nice creamy mouthfeel, smooth carbonation.

Overall this is the best beer I've tried from them. Although probably a bit over priced since it doesnt quite match something like St Bernardus Abt 12.

Perhaps the 10 months of conditioning in the bottle have done the beer well, none of the booziness noted in the other previous review.

Bottle pour at Tap and Mallet in Rochester, NY.

This one pours a darkish brown color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This is quite boozy on the nose, with fusel bitterness, along with clove, raisin, and breadiness.

The taste on this one is not quite as boozy as the nose was. There's some herbal character, a nice raisin and dark fruit sweetness, and some caramel.

This is medium bodied, with a prickly finish, and a hint of boozy heat.

I think I liked the Grand Cru dubbel better overall, but this was still very nice to try. I imagine some age would do wonders with this beer, in order to take the boozy edge off.