7/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
2003 bottle. Pours a deep orange-red, with some fiery golden hues. Much brighter and more colorful than its many belgian counterparts. Also much more clear, unfortunately. Good off-white head and a big aroma of crisp hops, lots of sweet candied sugar and a spicy yeast. Begins with so sweet a flavor it burns going down and I can only sip a bit at a time. Once I get past the initial shot of candi, there is some unusually bitter hops for the style, not citric or anything, but quite floral and more apparent than any other quad. Still, tastes quite clean and has an elegant yeast finish with chewy caramels, molasses, salty raisins and even some riper red fruits. Mouthfeel is peppery at first but has a buttery/creamy finish this is quite nice. I let this bottle sit out for 2 hours, and after returning to it, it was still highly carbonated. Good stuff, I just wish they wouldnt filter their beers so much. The huge sweetness is the biggest problem, but maybe this would even out better in a few years.7/4/7/3/12
2000 bottle, waxed top at XBF05 Very solid and drinkable it remains, with that big fiery fruit and alcohol burn, some acidity and plenty of candi sugar. The aging has added a nice note of oxidation and seems to have toned down some of the syrupiness and hops. I enjoyed it. 7/4/7/4/15
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 Apr 2004
at 10:39