The Cloak Of St Martin

When I first heard about Quad Day, I had no idea what Quad I should be drinking. I decided to turn to one my of favorite brewery tweeps and ask if they had one available, @AbbeyStMartin. Lucky for me, THEY DID!!! But it was not going to be easy to find.

This beer had a very limited release and it came to America two month prior for The Great American Beer Fest. I knew no other information about it either. The press release was some of the best information I could find since it wasn't even on the website.



Found at BeerPulse.com

Press Release:

(Rongy, BELGIUM) — The Cloak of St. Martin is a limited-edition Barleywine-style Belgian ale, ready to warm the North American autumn and winter (fermentation details seen below).

The Cloak is Brasserie Brunehaut’s first Abbaye ale brewed using doubled fermentation capacity gained via three new vats installed on Leap Day 2012. This increased capacity delivered enough vat time for the first batch of this labor-intensive 13%+ ABV quadruple. On October 10 at 4pm (during GABF), Brunehaut CEO Marc-Antoine De Mees visits Falling Rock Tap House — Denver for a first tap pull of his signature, long planned passion project.

The Cloak of St. Martin is a new Belgian Quadruple celebrating St. Martin’s famous charity of “sharing” his cloak with a beggar!

A very dark quad, The Cloak of St. Martin’s first fermentation, to 9% ABV, uses Brasserie Brunehaut’s signature, centuries-old yeast strain. Rare, exquisite champagne yeast boosts ABV from 9% to 13% during a six-week second fermentation. The Cloak is then cellared six more weeks before final fermentation yeast is added.

The low foam pour, due to high (13.2% ABV) alcohol content, announces with an extraordinary aroma. Robust, complex notes include blackberries, coffee and bitter Belgian dark chocolate. Only 1200x six-bottle cases of engraved, individually wrapped and corked with-muselet 750ml bottles were shipped. Demand seems certain to outpace supply.

Ingredients – Pure Belgian H20 + four malt types, three yeast strains, three hops varieties and candy sugar.

Now, like I said, the issue was trying to find this beer. I am so glad Bottle Revolution tweeted me and said that they had a few of them still sitting around and they would put one away for me if I liked. Of course I said, HELL YEAH!!! I went and picked it up and had it with my Christmas Dinner. DUCK!!!

So, I have never had or made duck before but it was delicious! Just a side note. The beer though, that was the biggest thing of the night. So amazing and so good.



This beer was a little warm on the nose but the dark fruits are the biggest thing to land in there. On first sip you do get a little citrus, or was that the orange glaze on my duck? followed by some cherries, plum a bit of spice and really sweet. It has a very full body and the flavor lingers with you for a good amount of time. This is seriously one of the best beers I have tasted this year. Loved it and I cannot wait to try some more.

Cheers!