Beer Review: Barrel of Monks’s Quadraphonic

Name: Quadraphonic
Brewing Company: Barrel of Monks Brewing Company
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Style: Belgian Quadrupel
ABV: 10.5%

Beer Review: Barrel of Monks’ Quadraphonic

From Barrel of Monks’s beers page (which changes regularly):

The Quadrupel is the granddaddy of the abbey-style ales. Typically, they are dark, strong ales bursting with flavors such as dark fruit, chocolate and raisins. Our Quadraphonic is no exception to this. This dense beer hides its 10.5% well with a deep brown color and a long rich finish. The Quadrupel is a beer designed for celebration and decadence.

Although traveling for work can be a bit wearying, it can also be rewarding. You can build great new business relationships and strengthen existing business relationships. Sometimes, you’re fortunate enough to be traveling with some like-minded people who enjoy well-crafted beer, and sometimes, you’ll find a great brewery when you’re traveling. Such is the case with today’s beer from Barrel of Monks brewery out of Boca Raton, Florida. This is standout brewery because it brews exclusively Belgian style ales and an outstanding brewery because their beers (at least the two I had, including today’s beer being reviewed) are superb examples of their style.

The Belgian Quadrupel, one of the biggest of all beers and the biggest of the Belgian Abbey styles. A world renowned style that derives much of its flavor from the magic of the yeast, it is a style not many breweries attempt and a style you’ll also find aged in some kind of oak barrel. Sometimes; however, you want the beer in its pure form un-enhanced by the barrel. Quadraphonic from Barrel of Monks in Boca Raton, Florida more than amply fits that bill.

Aside from the “Belgian Strong Dark Ale” the Quadrupel is the darkest of the Belgian ales that shows in the picture above. The bartender at Barrel of Monks poured the beer perfectly, allowing for a big fluffy head that gave off a beautiful earthy scent that was extremely inviting.

The first sip is a delightful “wow” and does what a good beer should – encourages to you drink more. I found the typical stone fruit flavors to be present, hints of plum and raisin with some figginess. Those first sips tell you this is a complex beer. As it settled to room temperature, I caught a hint of cherry too. By the time the glass was empty, I was both satisfied and sad. The beer was delicious, multifaceted enough that the flavor profile evolved in subtle, pleasing ways over the course of finishing it. The sadness should be obvious – the glass was empty.

This beer is on par with the Quadrupels I’ve had in the past. Only one of those was from an actual Belgian brewery (St. Bernardus), but I’ve also had renowned Quadrupels from Brewery Ommegang (Three Philosophers) as well as Weyerbacher (Quad) and Victory (V12). I’d easily rank Quadraophonic near or at the top of the Quadrupels I’ve had since joining untappd. I expect when I do my best of 2019 beers, this will be making an appearance.

Quadraophonic is quite simply, a delicious beer. What I wasn’t expecting was for how well the big ABV of this beer (10.5%) isn’t overpowering. On the whole, that’s what makes Quadraphonic such a great beer – it has all the elements you’d expect from a Quadrupel, without any element overpowering the other.

Recommended link to Untappd 4.5-Bottle Cap rating.

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