Secret Barrel Aged La Trappe

I ordered one online( Halftime ) for@ $22, thought I was getting a 750 ml. I really got a 360?i believe ( 12 oz). I read the listing wrong, it was my fault. Can't be certain which batch it was, # 3 I believe.

It was good. Great? Nope.

 

They aren't secret they are just stupid priced.... $18 for a 12oz is not even close to worth it....

 

$25 for a small bottle.

 

I see nothing wrong with this price, I pay $17, although I understand those who do
I don't flinch if this is the cost of Batch 15
Rio Reserva and Straffe Hendrik Heritage among others are in this category and arguably worth it
What The World Needs Now Is . . . . . .
more barrel aged quads

 

I've been sitting on a Batch 9 (Dec 2011 - mostly Malbec barrels) for about a year. I don't remember what I paid for it, but it was definitely less than $18. I want to say it was around $10-12. It was just sitting on a shelf in a local liquor store--maybe they didn't know the "secret" either.

I have to admit, I didn't really realize what I had either. This article has made me a bit more eager/curious to crack it open.

 

And a nicely blended BA Tripels. After having Allagash Curieux, that changed my mind on Barrel Aged Tripels.

 

These are really good. I love that La Trappe is doing some barrel aging. Really makes them stand out from other trappists. I've this a few times, but didn't keep up with what batch I had, unfortunately. I'm pretty sure I had 6, at least. I found it on tap at a place in Antwerp and that was a treat.

 

I have had a few of these and while they are pretty good I find them wildly overpriced. I also think the regular La Trappe Quad is pretty unremarkable and pales in comparison to the likes of Rochefort and Westvleteren or St Bernardus and De Struise, if we are looking at non-trappists.

 

I have had all of them except for the most recent nr. 15, hope to correct that soon.
They run about 8 € in a beer store & +/- 20 € in a bar in Belgium, oddly a touch higher in the Netherlands but beer in general is more expensive there.

The draft Oak Aged beers are different from the bottled ones (this one took us some time to find out). They predate the Oak Aged project. There are two versions out there. The most common one is a mix of non-oak aged beer & Port Wine BA Quad. The other one is a mix of a non-oak aged beer & White Wine BA Quad. Kulminator should have all of the kegs in existence of the second & rarer one. A miniature amount of bottles could possibly exist.

A lot of these really need to mellow out prior to drinking. Ideally you need to keep your bottle for some 2 years before drinking. You really need to treat them more like an old school English Barleywine as opposed to an BA Quad. Fresh they are okay but with age they are really impressive. As such I prefer the earlier ones & the ones aged on Malbec barrels were a bit disappointing. Batch #1 a couple of months back was truly impressive. I have been drinking the draft one at Kulminator ever since it came out & trust me, it really only keeps getting better. I am very far from an advent of aging beers.

BA Quad’s are a rare thing over here, I am exited about the series. No need to bash it, they are doing their best to experiment. If it is not your cup of tea, don’t buy it. The price is largely a result of them buying specific & expensive barrels. Bourbon Barrels are used only once & are local for USA brewers. Whereas an Islay whiskey barrel can last for centuries & is a lot rarer & more expensive.

There is also an Oak Aged Isid’or out there. Only one version made & it was a bit pricier than Quad ones if I am not mistaken.

 

I toured the brewery last year and they had a batch #14 in their tasting room. It was damn good.

 

I have bottles of each batch so far, and I've drank bottles of batches 6 & 8, both of which were wonderful. I love this program. I had grabbed a couple of the bottles a while back without even knowing that there were different batches using different barrel types. I looked it up to see what the barrels were after buying my first three and realized the program was pretty unique and robust. I've been snatching them up ever sense. I'll have to grab a few friends and do one massive horizontal tasting. Batches 6 and 8 were really different, and I can't wait to try the rest.

 

They are readily available at my local store. They sit on the shelves because they are expensive.

 

Gotcha, When I first started to really get into Belgians I was so exited to try it but could not bring myself to pay that. Maybe if it was a 750ml I would buy it once but would still make me cringe....

 

Same. I've never bought one. I've known about them for a long time now, including that they change the barrels for each release. I just can't bring myself to buy more than one of those at a time at the price they go for, and since they change the barrels each batch ideally I would buy at least two batches at once to compare. $18 for one 12.7oz/375ml I've never had before is a tough sell; getting two at once is out of the question until I win the lottery. There's too many other cheaper awesome beers out there.

If I hear about a particularly interesting barrel combination I may seek out a bottle of that one batch, but otherwise this is a pretty low priority for me right now. If they were taking my advice I would suggest one batch entirely or mostly in Monbazillac barrels, as Alvinne Cuvee D'Erpigny was absolutely stunning. I guess I would be interested in different types of fruited brandy as well (calvados/apple brandy, pear brandy, plum brandy, coconut brandy, etc). I don't know that there are many country fruit wines (like cherry wine, raspberry wine, etc) which are barrel-aged, but a quad aged in plum wine or elderberry/elderflower wine barrels could be interesting.

 

Barrels from fruit wine are quite a big rarity if I am not mistaken.
I love these ideas & I would love to try all of these beers.

Alvinne Cuvee D'Erpignywas very nice, fresh Melchior Monbazillac was the one that really blew me away.

I usually try to get new batches at stores & split them with several people.
A lot of the old batches, we split the cost by 5 or so.

 

Yeah, I've heard of a country winery in Illinois using oak chips for some of their fruit wines, never barrels though. It's a shame. I'd love to see a big doppelweizen (or a quad, what the hell) aged in apricot wine barrels, were such a thing to exist.

 

Plus some stuff labelled like fruit wine isn’t actually wine. An example that comes to mind is like Japanese plum wine which is basically alcohol with sugar in which fruit was soaked.

I assume just picking a barrel & adding a fruit will get you there as well. I cannot name any Quad or Weizen made with fruit etc. of European origin. Vliegende Paard brouwers recently made a Quad aged with coffee, maybe we can talk them into using fruit.

I for one would love to try anything aged on Pineapple wine “barrels” or with the fruit or whatever.