Stewarts Conundrum Quad Ale

Formerly brewed at Stewarts Brewing Company
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Bear, Delaware USA

2 year bottle-conditioned 750 ml bottle from Stewart’s. Pours turbid brownish ruby, like a dull ruddy muddy rusty color with a bit more burnt sienna. Minimal head, as expected. Nose is a medley of fruits, yeasty spicy peppery florals, malt, and hops. Tastes fruity, with cherry, berry, merlot, spicy, black peppery, hops, and candi sugary malt. Very complex, very well hidden alcohol, and very well balanced. A bit like a barleywine/quad hybrid, this one was well worth the trip to procure, and the 15 dollar price tag.

[BCTC 07] Poured a dark reddish brown color with a medium sized, off white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of roasted malts, caramel, coriander, dark fruits, leather, and flowers. Taste was sweet, with more caramel, but balanced with huge fruity spices (coriander), yeast, light toffee, dried fruits, roast, and a touch of alcohol as well. This should be the next one to get bottled, and I expect it to age very gracefully!

Poured a copper color with a nice off-white head, decent retention with good lacing. The aroma was floral (lavendar type smell), fruity esters (lighter fruits, less of the dark fruits) over a spicey base, very hard to determine (primarily yeasty components, anise maybe also in there?). The flavor was nice, deceptively drinkable, very crisp for a beer this strong or anything belgian, excellent bitter hop balance at the end of each sip, again very drinkable. Featured flavors were grapes and other light fruits, some light caramel, gentle peppery spicing, a touch of coriander/cloviness, a lot going on, including an apparent rye/wheat accent to further dry this out and add some twang? A smooth beer, even if this isn’t the prototypical take on a Quad... in that case it’s an excellent Belgian Strong Saison. Nice job, Ric!

Feb. 2007 - Dark brown, strong fruity aroma. Rich dark fruit and candied sugar, but not as rich as other quads, which made it more drinkable. Sweet, but not overly so...maybe a touch of saison-funkiness, but that might have been psycho-somatic. Still and all, very good.

Poured a copper color with small head and good lacing. Aroma was of spices and floral and fruits. Flavor was of candied sugar and dark fruits, hops were to keep the sweetness from running away.

BCTC. Best beer of the lot. Amber/dark red color with small head. Malty with fruity,caramel, dark fruit aroma and taste. Sweet and spicy and VERY easy to drink. Went back to the Stewart campsite and drank this stuff all night.

750ml bottled Feb of 07,from stewarts drank at the bar. Poured into a snifter, no head and not even any carbonation. No lacing on the glass ethier. Ruby brown in color. Aroma of candy sugar, touch of alcohol, light fruitiness. Taste is sweet candy sugar and dark fruits. Dry but light in texture. They did a good job hiding the alcohol, no trace of the 11 percent. All in all a good beer. Rating number five-zero-zero!

THOUGHTS: This was easy to drink even with the high ABV. It was sweet smelling of caramel and cherry. Very tasty and pleasantly warming. TECHNICAL: On tap at Stewart’s. The beer was somewhere in between medium and dark reddish brown with a small, off-white head that mostly diminished. The body was medium to full and syrupy with fizzy carbonationa and a metallic and lightly alcoholic finish.