Tag Archives: ba

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Belgian Quadrupel, Belgium, Brouwerij Alvinne

Alvinne Cuvée de Mortagne Sauternes

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Brewery: Brouwerij Alvinne
Country: Belgium
ABV: 12.8%
Style: Belgian Quadrupel
Other Notes: Traditional Ale. Sweet 4/5, Sour 0/5 & Bitter 2/5

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Sauternes barrel aged Quadrupel.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.78
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: A 330ml bottle, with a best before date of June 2023. Poured into a Chimay goblet glass.
Appearance: A hazy dark brown colour with a very thin beige head that disappeared immediately and no lacing.
Aroma: Sweet malt, slight vinous, red wine, grape, berries, apple, raisin, prunes, oak, with notes of caramel.
Taste: Sweet, candied dried fruit, prunes, raisin, grapes, oak, chocolate, caramel, and a light bitter herbal finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: It’s definitely a sipper with the booze and sweetness. Maybe a bit too sweet for me with lots of dark candied dried fruit and caramel. Still, the aroma and flavours were nicely complex with good barrel character.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, USA, Wild Ale

Sante Adairius Four Legs Good

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Brewery: Sante Adairius Rustic Ales
Country: USA
ABV: 9.9%
Style: American Wild Ale

Brewer Description: (from bottle) What do a three-legged dog, a made-up beer style, and a giant oak cask have to do with each other? One great beer. Four Legs Good, our Blond Quad, belies its sweet nature with a dry, full finish and sneaky strength. Fermented first in puncheons with extensive aging in oak foudres, Four Legs Good doesn’t care what you call it as long as she is along for the ride. Four Legs Good, three legs better. Sante!

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.45
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: A 750ml bottle with no clear bottled on or best before date. Poured into a Chimay goblet glass.
Appearance: A hazy darkish orange colour with a half finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly to a thin fluffy and replenishing cap, while leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Tart, redcurrants, apple, oak, funky, peach skin.
Taste: Sour, tart, plum, prunes, apricot, redcurrant, and oak, with funky notes.
Mouthfeel: Creamy, smooth, medium to full bodied with soft carbonation.
Overall: Blond Quad? What’s that? Well, it is self described as a made up style. Before pouring, I thought it was a Quad, so I poured it into a goblet glass, but I’m going to call it a Wild Ale, and whatever you call it, this is still very good. Great sour, tart, fruity and barrel aging flavours, combined with a well hidden abv, just makes this extremely enjoyable.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Belgian Quadrupel, Belgium, Brouwerij De Halve Maan

Straffe Hendrik Heritage 2015 Armagnac Oak Aged Ale

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Brewery: Brouwerij De Halve Maan
Country: Belgium
ABV: 11%
Style: Belgain Quadrupel
Other Notes: Armagnac Oak Aged Ale

Brewer Description: (from bottle) This quadruple is a heavy and dark beer, brewed in the unique family brewery “De Halve Maan”, which has been located since 1856 in the historical centre of Bruges. This quadruple is matured for more than one year in oak casks in the ancient cellars of the brewery. It gives this beer a complex flavour and rich aroma. The beer is re-fermented in the bottle, and has a longer shelf life, during which the taste evolves still further. The tannins and the complex malt flavours ripen into a harmonious balance over the time.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.38
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.3

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle, bottle no. 22214, 2015 vintage, and with a best before date of end of 2026. Poured into a Chimay goblet glass.
Appearance: A hazy dark amber brown colour with an almost two finger creamy beige head that dissipated fairly quickly but settled to a rapidly replenishing thin layer over the top while leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Plum, prunes, apple, oak, with notes of cherry, red berries, and brandy.
Taste: Dark fruit, plum, prunes, oak, boozy, brandy, caramel, toffee, apple, with notes of red berries.
Mouthfeel: Creamy, medium to full bodied, light to moderate carbonation, and a warming finish.
Overall: Very nice complex flavours and the Armagnac barrel matched well with this Quad. I haven’t tried many barrel aged Quads, but this definitely makes me want to try more.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Garage Project, New Zealand, Porter - Baltic

Garage Project Baltic Porter Bourbon Barrel Aged

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Brewery: Garage Project
Country: New Zealand
ABV: 11.5%
Style: Baltic Porter
Other Notes: Bourbon Baltic Porter 2016

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Baltic Porter, the favoured tipple of the Tzars. This batch has been treated to an extra serving of imperial decadence, aged for over a year in oak bourbon barrels. The result is a real heavyweight-rich and smooth with a seamless combination of vanilla, dried fruit, coffee, toffee and liquorice, but a classic clean finish courtesy of it’s long, cold fermentation. He’s an old bear, but he can still take any contender pound-for-pound.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.2
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.1

Intro: A 650ml bottle, packed on 29th September 2017. Poured into a snifter glass.
Appearance: A clear dark brown colour with a one finger beige head that dissipated fairly quickly, while leaving only sparse spotty lacing.
Aroma: Chocolate, cocoa, bourbon, oak, vanilla, coffee, with notes of dark fruit, prunes, and plum.
Taste: As you’d expect from the aroma, lightly sweet, chocolate, cocoa, coffee, bourbon, oak, vanilla, with a hint of dark fruit, prunes, and plum.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: A very nice and enjoyable Baltic Porter with great bourbon and dark fruit notes. I like this a lot more than the base non-barrel aged version.

4 - Good (buy), Australia, Beer Reviews, Wild Ale, Wildflower Brewing & Blending

Wildflower Good As Gold

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Brewery: Wildflower Brewing & Blending
Country: Australia
ABV: 5%
Style: Wild Ale
Other Notes: Australian Wild Ale

Brewer Description: (from website) Good as Gold is a 50/50 blend of barrel aged Gold with fresh Gold that has just completed primary fermentation. This blend is composed of barrels 1850 (19 month old Gold) and 1722 (22 month old Gold) equally blended with the 62nd batch of Gold brewed in March 2020.

At release, this blend’s aroma shows flinty, wet stone, citrus zest and hoppy spice with soft creamy overtones. The palate is bright and vibrant with clean citrus lines. Really nice balance, mild acidity and palate cleansing gentle bitterness.

The base beer is brewed entirely with New South Wales cereals: Single Origin (S.O.) Riverina NSW grown Schooner ale malt and Coleambally NSW grown organic Red raw wheat thanks to Voyager Malt & Chris and Sam Greenwood. It is made with filtered Sydney water and Motueka (NZ) and Saaz (CZ) hops. Finally, it was fermented with our house culture: brewers yeast, foraged wild yeast and naturally occurring souring bacteria native to New South Wales. It was bottled on 15 April 2020 and naturally conditioned through refermentation for 16 weeks. At bottling it was 5.0% ABV, 25 IBU and 1.1°P (FG= 1.004 SG).

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.32
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.2

Intro: A 750ml bottle, blend #9, bottled in April 2020, and with a best before date of April 2025. Poured into a 3 Fonteinen Zenne glass.
Appearance: A lightly hazy straw golden colour with a one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly, while leaving only sparse spotty lacing.
Aroma: Funky, citrus zest, lemon peel, unripe mango, floral, and soft barrel notes.
Taste: Lightly sour and tart, funky, brett, mixed citrus juice, maybe grapefruit and orange, with a lemon zesty finish.
Mouthfeel: Light bodied with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: A very refreshing, light, and easy to drink Wild Ale. Great on a hot summer day, but seems like it could be an all year round beer for me.