Southampton Abbot 12

Bottle. Gusher! The cork popped out as I was untwisting the cage. Pours a dark murky brown with a huge, thick creamy tan head. Aroma of apple, pear, dark fruits, squash and other vegetables, and light spices. Flavor is extremely sweet with a lot of squash, almost soda-like. This definitely needs some age on it because it is super super sweet. Hard to enjoy with all the sugar.

Numerous 750ml bottles. Each bottle changes in character, in particular the ’sweetness’ variable. First pour is dark mahogany with coca cola cherry red highlighst and a really big head. Hard to get a grasp of all the flavor components, but there’s alot of rich, sweet mal, and dark fruits -- raisins, prunes, sweet figs, and caramel butterscotch candy. A bit of rum creeps in. The second pour is much cloudier -- as with all 750 Southamptons, thick and chewy, an elegant abbey-style quadruple. There’s a faint sense of oak and hickory in there, but the swetness takes that over. The mouthfeel could be creamier, especially near the top of the bottle.

Bottled. Amber colour, small beige head. Aroma is raisins, toffee, alcohol and some sweet malts. Raisins, some sweet nectary notes, alcohol and fruityness in the flavour. Wellbalanced, and very drinkable brew.

Amber/brown pour with thick white head. Rather thin mouth feel for a quad, but still very sticky and alcoholic. Heavy on the spice and exotic sweetness, lacking what other quads bring to the table.

Pours dark reddish brown with two finger head that dissapates slowly. Aroma is of spicy yeast and dark fruit. Flavor is sweet and well balanced with lots of brown sugar and raisin, with excellent yeast character. Palate is smooth but a little thin- nice though. Not the most extravagant example of the style, but tasty just the same.