Oak Barrel Aged

After the first 'oaked' version of Mareklop Quadrupel, which was aged on wood chips and simply called Mareklop Oak, this brewer now presents us with the logical extension of this idea, namely Mareklop Quadrupel which has effectively been aged (for a year) on an actual wooden barrel - making the intermediate step of Mareklop Oak seem a bit redundant in retrospect. The barrel previously contained "jenever", the traditional gin variant of the Low Countries, but from what I heard, a whisky barrel version is also being made, or already released meanwhile. Thin, pale beige head, quickly dissipating under influence of the alcohol I assume, leaving behind not much more than a thin ring around the glass, over a hazy (in the end rather 'muddy') chestnut brown beer with ochre-ish hue. Aroma breathes a lot of alcohol, plum brandy, old 'jenever' and cognac, as well as quite a lot of actual oak wood and a solventy aspect of fresh paint, positioned (a bit too) heavily next to the beer's own properties which include aspects of fried banana, soggy brown bread, toffee, hazelnut paste, candied fig, old raisin, apple sauce, gingerbread, moist chocolate bars. Sweet onset, lots of bursting ripe plums, raisins and dried banana, sourish blackberry-ish undercurrent; lots of heating, almost 'stinging' alcohol burn already from the start. Soft carbonation, full and as said, 'hot' mouthfeel; caramelly, 'brown' bready maltiness with a lot of lingering candi sugar sweetness. Drying finish with a dash of herbal hops, but stronger in woody tannins and, expectedly, a whole lot of booze, gin-like and heating up the finish in an astringently drying way, adding actual 'jenever' flavours. Rich beer, but going a bit into overdrive in booziness - the Oak version with mere oak chips was subtler and more refined. Bit crude and too alcoholic for me even for a B.A. quad, seems like the regular version was mixed with an actual shot of 'jenever', but interesting and drinkable enough as a slow, warming winter sipper. Some months of cellaring may shave off the booziness (and solventy paint-like acerbity) a bit so may have more potential.

8 July 2020. Random Wednesday Tasting; cheers to Anke & Tim! Hazy dark brown, quickly thinning, frothy, tan head. Aroma of pear syrup, date paste, wet oak, rum-soaked raisin, red (some green) apple, calvados, plum, dark toffee. Taste has sweet toffee, date & raisin, ripe plum & pear giving off a phenolic whiff, some bitter clove with a yeasty-estery red apple accent. Malty finish, soft peppery hops, lots of dried fruits, wet wood in the end & heating brandy & calvados alcohol. Medium body, oily-syrupy texture, soft carbonation. Typical as a Belgian Quad, not very refined as a 'BA' but I can appreciate this kind of beer.

8/VII/20 - 33cl bottle from the client brewer (Mareklop, Lokeren), shared @ Nathan & Anke’s place, BB: 22/XI/20, bottled: 22/XI/17 (2020-601)

Little cloudy dark brown beer, small aery irregular beige head, unstable, non adhesive. Aroma: some phenols, alcohol, some banana, caramel, alcohol, soft roast, bit spicy, yeast character. MF: soft carbon, medium body. Taste: lots and lots of alcohol, sweet, more alcohol, sugary, soft bitterness, slightly roasted, banana, some phenols. Aftertaste: banana, ripe banana, sweet, yeasty, sugary, alcohol, slightly acidic, ripe banana. Not bad. Not great either. Was expecting more character from the wood/barrel.
(restored from faulty merge)