Rochefort Trappistes 10

Brewed by Brasserie Rochefort
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Rochefort, Belgium

Chocolate and funky fruit peels on the nose from this black beauty. Slide this one up to the lips and you know it is something special before you even get the first sip. And once that first sip hit the tongue it’s just an explosion of "wow!" flavours. Cherry, chocolate, cookies, bread, vanilla, banana, nuts, caramel and spice, alcohol, it kind of goes on and on until you’re left guessing for more upon each returning sip. A challenging beer that deserves high praise. Drink well.

11.2 oz bottle. Aroma is interesting, not overpowering, includes raisins, nuts, some sweet fruit, almond cookie, and very minor alcohol. Plentiful tan cream pillow-like head, ok lacing, dark milk chocolate color with lots of sediment, completely opaque. Flavor profile is again interesting and complex, cane sugar and bittersweet at the start, a lot of raisin, fig, decent amount of alcoholic bite in middle, then a hard to describe fruit sweetness, best i can do to describe is a balanced alignment of grapes and a combo of mild red berries, in the finish into a slightly smoother finish. I would love to try this one aged a couple years to mellow it out a bit. Overall this beer was a very enjoyable experience with a lot of complexities, I’m oh so slightly disappointed with certain qualities of this beer, but it will still be remembered well.

Pours a deep redish brown with a beige head, plenty of lace. Aroma of fruit, malt, caramel. Fruit is dark, and malt is sweet. Taste is also sweet and fruity. Finishes lightly bitter.

Bottle 33cl. Pours a beautiful murky dark red/brown colour, with a great size head, that lasts longer than the beer! Smells magic, tastes magic. Smell gives away almost nothing, as it’s so complex that it is hard to define anything specific. Though it is sweet and fruityish. Taste is a perfectly balanced complexity of grapes, raisins, raspberry and loads more fruits. Magically smooth and a lovely beer to drink.

(Bottle). Aroma is enticingly fruity, with some caramel and malt. Color is absolutely gorgeous dark burgundy brown, with off-white head. Flavor is just as described by everyone else.....hits you first with complex fruitiness, then lingers to a dry satisfying finish. I don’t think the alcohol intrudes in any objectionable way (and I generally don’t go for the big ABV beers). This is a glorious Belgian brew.

caramel, resin, alcohol, black, sparkling, full body, thick feel, average carbonation, long finish,

I bought 3 of these in Japan on the internet for the princely sum of 800 yen per bottle (about £4). I’ve been hoarding them like a demented alcoholic squirrel waiting for the right moment to crack one open. I fell in love with Rochefort after being served it in a pub in the Grand Place in Brussels (it happened to be the first of the trip). I asked the waiter which beer he liked and he said the 10 was too strong for him (poof). In the space of about 30/40 minutes I’d worked my way through the whole range and got a funky afternoon buzz on. Everything about it screams quality; from the name and label, to the glass it’s served in, to the aroma and taste. Visually it reminded me of the murky, filthy, mud puddles we loved jumping around in as kids, and this beer produced the exact same feeling of euphoria. A deeply inviting aroma; caramelised sugar, cocoa, malt and hints orange zest. The zest transfers to the palate and is pleasantly fizzy for this style of beer. The alcohol is conspicuous in the aroma but much less so in the taste; if weren’t for the delightful buzz i’m getting i’d swear blind it wasn’t 11.3%. Melted galaxy chocolate, freshly baked mixed fruitcake with a persistent aftertaste. For the first time i can feel comfortable saying there is a party in my mouth. This is the Bob Dylan of the beer world. Perfect imperfection.

Drank at room temp. Poured with 1/2 inch white head. The aroma is lacking, but the flavor definitely doesn’t. Complex and very enjoyable to drink. Very smooth and abv is almost undetectable.