7.4

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7.5

The newest Kerel beer and the first to be bottled on 75 cl, a quadrupel making use of rye malt. Thickly mousy, yellowish egg-white, quite dense, membrane-lacing, stable head on a misty copper-ruddy red brown beer with warm mahogany glow. Aroma of brown sugar, banana bread, raisins, brown rum, a strong and even somewhat ‘stupefying’ solvent effect (nail polish remover, gasoline), candy apple, ripe pear, brown bread, hints of fig, white pepper and wet cinnamon. Fruity onset, banana ester but not exaggerated with pleasant fig, pear and medlar impressions, sweet residual ‘candi sugariness’ typical for the style, medium strong carb, soft and smooth, full body; sweet-caramelly and brown-bready malt body with very evident rye edge (a dim, grey bread-like spiciness), some light bitterish toastiness in the end accentuated by strong rum-like alcohol, becoming a tad wry eventually, but tempered a bit by the maltiness and sweetishness. Herbal, bit spicy hop bitter note in the finish too, and of course this strong solvent effect returning retronasally. This effect was the only thing bothering me a bit here, but otherwise this is a damn fine quad and I’m sure that over time, when the boozy and solventy sharpness begins to fade, this may get even better – possibly the best Kerel beer so far, even. Somewhere in between Dutch (La Trappe) quadrupel and Belgian (Chimay) ‘abt’, really, so it does not get any more quadrupel than this, I guess… Nice, full and balanced beer, surprised to stumble upon this in a big bottle from this brewery, too.