Roundtable #29 - I'm moving to Holland / Beer Diary

Ok, you know where we were and what we tried so I'll just get to the review...

After my warm-up of 60 minute, we drank the Quadruple from Brouwerij de Koningshoeven. This beer was absolutely spectacular. Though it has a high ABV, it really didn't smack you in the face with it. I agree with Mike that it kinda smelled like grape soda, and I love Jim's caramel covered fruit reference, I think that serves the beer very well. At one point, during conversation, I looked at my glass to take another drink and it was over half gone and I was a little sad. 5 mugs.

Other beers I've had over the last few weeks:

Brugge Brasserie - The Black. This started with a little bit more alkaline taste than I remember, but then it warmed to all of its malty splendor. This beer makes me excited to drink beer all over again. The taste is creamy and flavorful without overpowering your senses. This is definitely in my top 5 and probably in my top 3.

Lakefront Brewery - Cherry Lager. Though it is called a fruit beer, I didn't initially get much of a fruit nose or taste. I did find that after it warmed just a little, I did get a bit of sour cherry flavor. It reminded me of a fizzy sparkling soda.

New Holland Brewing Company - Black Tulip. I've heard some good things about this beer, but I don't think that I agree. The smell was pleasant with a strong alcohol nose, but it tasted like a gym sock marinated in a Belgian beer.

Lion Brewery - Lion Stout. Mike and I picked this up on our Jungle Jim's trip. This was based on the recommendation of the beer guy at the store. The label says to enjoy it with spicy food, so we thought it would be a good one to bring along to the pre-game tailgating party where Jason made some fantastic chili. The beer was great, and indeed went well with the chili. It was very dark, chocolaty, and had a very full mouthfeel.

Roundtable #29 - Looking for trouble..from the beer, not each other.

Apparently, all the Knights were in a good mood because this is the first time in a while that we didn't go into great debate over anything pop culture, though we talked about a lot of different things. But we did find a trouble of another sort.

9%, 10%, 7%...those were the ABV's of the three beers I enjoyed at BadaBoomz last night. The trouble is that all three were extremely drinkable with little hint as to how powerful they are.

I warmed up with a Frosty Frog from Rogue's Issaquah Brewhouse. This has become a favorite of mine and is found on tap. It is a winter seasonal American Strong Ale and it is like buttered rum in beer form. It smells like butterscotch. It tastes like butterscotch. It has a light mouthfeel that doesn't stick around for all that long. Easy to drink, in my opinion. Now we aren't officially reviewing this particular beer tonight, but if we were, I'd probably give it a 5 mugs rating. I love this beer. I put it up there with Bell's Hopslam, Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout, and Dogfish Head's 90 Minute as my favorites.

I finished with a bottle of Ara Bier from Belgium's Brouwerij De Dolle Brouwers. This is an interesting Belgian Strong Pale Ale. It pours out cloudy and gold with a fizzy head. The smell was of fruit that was teetering on the edge of going from ripe to rotten. But in a sort of good way, if that is possible. It tastes a little of fruit, a little of spices. A very unique beer that deserves further exploration. Plus, it looks like the bird on the label is some terrible parrot/rooster hybrid. Prooster? Rarrot? Who knows.

And in between was our center stage beer: Konings Hoeven Quadrupple Trappist Ale from the Netherlands' Brouwerij de Koningshoeven. It poured from the bottle with a thick, foamy head. The beer was brown and cloudy, appearing almost like apple cider. In the scent, you can pick up a variety of things, as the reviews here show. I found apples and pears with a little ting of alcohol. The alcohol was nowhere to be found in the taste. Instead, I found a lot of sweetness. Brown sugar, pop rocks, caramel maybe? A fruit medley was also to be found. It left a sugary, chewy feel in my mouth.

This stuff is drinkable. Incredibly drinkable. Too drinkable. You could easily go through 4 or 5 bottles before realizing that you are toast. But I'm giving it a 4.5 mugs rating, making it the best toast you'll ever be.

Roundtable #29 | Heaven in a bottle

Imagine life in a monastic community. You live in seclusion and self-imposed poverty. The majority of each day consists of prayer and meditation. You also work each morning and afternoon, tending to the chores that must be done to enable the monastery to function--washing clothes, sweeping floors, preparing food, weeding the vegetable garden, etc.

Now imagine that instead of washing clothes, sweeping floors, preparing food, and weeding the vegetable garden, your job is to brew beer. This is not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a monk's work, but it is exactly the job that some Trappist monks have. They brew a style of Belgian beers called, logically, Trappist beers.

Seven breweries currently brew authentic Trappist beers. All are in Belgium except for one, which is in the Netherlands--Brouwerij de Koningshoeven. This brewery makes six beers, which are sold under the La Trappe name everywhere except the United States and Canada, where they are sold under the Konings Hoeven label.

As Mike mentioned, we tried the Konings Hoeven Quadrupel last night at BadaBoomz. We went into this roundtable intending to review New Albanian's Hoptimus IPA, which we sampled this summer at the Phoenix Theatre's Brew-Ha-Ha and the Indiana Microbrewer's Festival. Unfortunately, BadaBoomz still has not tapped the keg of Hoptimus that is currently sitting in their cellar.

Therefore, we trusted Jason and Mike to come up with another choice. I'm happy to say that they hit a home run with the Konings Hoeven Quadrupel. The adjectives that this beer conjured up in my mental notes are "luscious" and "divine" (the latter makes sense considering that monks made the beer). It poured with very little head and a somewhat cloudy but rich mahogany color. The nose was sweet and had notes of caramel and ripe bananas. The mouthfeel was silky; the beer literally glided from the front to the back of my mouth. The taste was candy-like. I imagined caramel drizzled over ripe fruit. Despite the sweetness, this beer was very, very drinkable, and at 10% ABV, very dangerous if not sipped.

In short, this is one of the best beers that we've reviewed. 5 mugs from me.