Bottle sample at a tasting at Tom L’s place. Thanks kerenmk. Hazy yellow-golden with a big white head. Yeast, graininess, spiciness, some fruity esters, sweetish, bitterish finish. Medium-bodied, lively carbonation. Not really my thing.

From 33cl bottle at Feith Huis, Groningen, The Netherlands. Pours dark amber with limited white foam. Aroma is very malty, plus caramel, dried fruits. Body is medium. Taste is sweet, though a little bit of bitterness emerges in the end. Finish is average.

Bottle at home. Deep reddish dark brown with beige head. Dried dates, raisins, brown sugar, milk chocolate, light rye bread, light sugary, dead leaves, cinnamon. Over medium sweet and under medium bitter. Bit over medium bodied. Quite nice!

330ml bottle from trade with Benzai. Pours a misty gold with overly large white head. Aroma presents lightly sweet, floral notes. Taste is smooth sweet yeast, light honey, grains. Quite malt-forward with a leaning towards an underlying saison yeast character.

Quad from this brewery in Drenthe, bought at a Mitra shop in Lelystad. Medium thick, moussy, pale greyish beige head leaving dots of lacing and some thin veils in the middle, over a translucent dark bronze to mahogany brown beer with ochre edges. Rich bouquet of cocoa, toffee, candied figs, yellow Sultana raisins, overripe pear, ripe blue Président plum, medlar even, caramel syrup, dried banana, blueberries, brown rum, beef stock, bayleaf, old dried thyme, wet brown leather, stewed horse meat ’carbonades’, blackcurrant juice, slowly stewed cranberries, coffee with a lot of cream, vanilla pudding, Eiswein, brown bread crumbs, very old sherry hint (vintage bottle of 1+ year old - onsetting oxidation, in other words). Candied sweet onset, hinting at marmelade, blueberry jam and candied figs with a deeply situated blueberry sourishness, soft spicy notes and beef stock-like umami as well, in a medium yet subtly tingling carbonated environment, just about right for this style; rich caramelly malt sweetness ensues, very (milk) chocolatey in the middle, acquiring a bitterish toasted edge quite rapidly but firmly maintaining this deeply situated chocolatey and very toffeeish sweetness. Very malty beer by all standards, finishing a bit more dry due to herbal, somewhat spicy hop pungency and a warming, very lightly astringent, rum-like alcohol glow. The alcohol and the bittersweet - yet more sweet than bitter - flavors linger for quite a while; at the same time, some retronasal, bit rusty but still very elegant, old sherry-like oxidation remains as well. I haven’t had any previous experiences with this brewing company so I cannot compare with the quality standard of their other beers but this to me is a very accomplished quadrupel: thick enough, complex, very pleasantly malt and sugar sweet, with a warming alcoholic finish but adding umami layers of flavor which make it quite an individual beer departing from the old sweet Belgian blue Chimay, Rochefort 10 or indeed ’Westy’ 12 standard - in fact almost turning it into a dark barleywine, if that concept makes any sense at all. The bottle fits this time of the year perfectly and the age (I estimate about 1.5 years) is perfect for this type of beers, already adding a sherry-ish maderisation which, in this case, only adds complexity to a basically relatively ’simple’ beer - for this style, that is. I thoroughly enjoyed this one at this age - if this is the quality standard this brewery achieves, I’m very curious about the rest of their range. Pleasant surprise.