Quad Day: Take 2

#QuadDay is back in full force this year! The Second Annual and celebrating one of the most bad ass of styles. There seems to be more interest in it this year and I even had people telling me that it is not a real holiday without an Untappd Badge. Well maybe that is the problem... You can't drink what you like without having someone tell you that you have to. That is why we have Quad Day. Glorious words from the Founder of this awesome day. And oh yeah, Happy Birthday Beer Drinker Rob!

Seriously, though, before you get too much into another "beer holiday," keep in mind that this one was invented to basically mock the other "corporate" type evangelistic ones. Just so you know, I don't really give a shit if you drink a Quad or any beer. I don't care if you post pictures or use the hash tag. Drink whatever you want. If you want, go ahead and curse at me in the comments. There will be no fanfare or prizes or badges (at least none I worked on setting up). There are no clubs. Let's just drink some delicious beer!

I got this Saint Arnold Divine Reserve 13 in a trade while trying to procure beers for 1001 Beers. He said, well the ones you asked for are fine but here is some real Texas Beer. Awesome. Just awesome.



I also thought that same thing about the beer. Up to light Divine Reserve 13 is a Deep Ruby born with a short lived, bubbly brown head Quad that also boast some amazing clarity. Dark fruits and a bit malty on the nose with a very warming alcohol sensation filling your nostrils, which comes at no surprise since it clocks in at 11%abv.

The body is a little thin but the maltiness, plums, a hint of cherry, some very awesome chocolaty notes, and residual sweetness work together fantastically. There is a bit of alcohol warmth keeping all those flavors in check and making me feel oh, so good. The alcohol does not really come through much in the flavor at all and it finishes quite dry. I think this is a great beer to show you just how big and bad a Quad can be. Glad this was my beer of choice this year.

Cheers!

1001 Beers: Three Philosophers

For those of you that didn't know, December 2nd was Inaugural Quad Day. I know this is pretty late, but hey. It's the holidays. I didn't, at first, know what to think but as I learned more and more about it I just let it be and celebrated all that is the glorious style that is, The Quad. Straight from the mouth of the founder:

I picked the Belgian Quad as the focus of the newest and greatest holiday this side of Christmas, and it was no mistake that December 2 will be the annual celebration of this glorious day (it's my birthday too).

It is a shame though that I did not earn a badge. But, what's that you ask? What beer did I drink for The Inaugural Quad Day? Beer Number 22: Brewery Ommegang Three Philosophers.



They say this beer was made for contemplation and we actually had a good discussion about it being it seemed to be the number one beer of choice for Quad Day. Even coming up with the recipe or I guess the concept of this beer seemed to give the brewer some issues.

What is your ideal beer? A hoppy British ale? An aromatic German hefeweizen? An Oregon home-brewer named Noel Blake sat down a number of years ago and pondered this question for a "Create a Great Beer" contest. For him, the matter of one's ideal beer is not simply about style or even ingredients; it's really a philosophical question whose answer can be debated endlessly.

I agree with this 100%. So much talk out there about one beer being better than others or how one beer should not be drank based upon things such as who brewed it etc, etc. Taste is subjective. Each beer could be someones ideal beer. I mean, someone had to think it was good to want to sell it? But hey, lets focus on this.

Things that I really picked out were the cherries on the aroma. Obvious I know but that really stood out to me. Even when I went in for my first sips, the cherries were over top of everything else. When the Belgian yeast started to kick in things may have became a little tart and raisins started to come out and maybe a little bit of chocolate. Very smooth and malty. I had to keep coming back to this. I am glad that I had the bottle all to myself. If you have not had it, get it... but you have to wait until Quad Day To Enjoy it.

979 Bottles Of Beer To Go!

Cheers!

Ovila Tasting

Back home, for just a little bit anyway, about to move onto my next Duty Station but got to take a little bit of time to live carefree. I went over to a buddies house and brought over a few delights that I had been holding onto for a while. I really had no idea when I was going to drink these bottles and I thought I would have done so already, but yup, no better time than now.




It only made sense that we started at the first released and worked our way to the last released. I hear that they created a new version of the Dubbel and I am wondering if I got that one or if this is a bottle of the original. I think I picked this bottle up in Julyish...

Either way, I think this one is a lot better than the original I had. I do not know if the beer, in March 2011, was too young or if that version just had more of a bite than this one. It was great, if the old version, it mellowed out amazingly, if the new, they knew exactly what to fix. Dark fruits, raisins, a bit of a sweetness made this beer great.




Next came the Saison, originally released in June of 2011, I believe. It was spicy up front, the yeast bite for sure must have played a role. There was a weird flavor over top but I have no idea what it was. Great flavor though. It was tingly and fruity. Not my favorite saison but pretty solid.


Oh, the Quad. I have never had this beer before today. I bought a bottle of it, once released in November 2011, and it has been waiting for me ever since. I love everything that this beer stands for. It is a great example of the style. I am hoping I can get my hands on barrel aged version once it comes out but I would love to just have this one over and over again. Very malty and the dark fruits were just miraculous. It had a major boozy nose but it did not burn like other beers. When drinking it the warming sensation you feel is to die for. Fig. Yeah, Fig.

This is such a great series and I plan to pick up the 4 packs of Dubbel once they are released. The Saison is supposedly being replaced by a Golden Ale I believe, and the Quad is just being revamped all the way around apparently. I want to locate the few bottles left while I still can.

Cheers!