Urthel Samaranth

Brouwerij De Leyerth
Brewed at De Koningshoeven (Bavaria - Netherlands)
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Ruiselede, Belgium

750ml corked bottle. Pours a Beautiful, vibrant, dark amber to mahogany with orangish, tawny hues and a medium off-white head, which leaves excellent Brussels lacing. A lively bead of carbonation endlessly floats to the top. Appearance is similar to a dry sherry or tawny port. The aroma is incredible, by far the best feature of this brew. An endless array of sweet, juicy, overripe dark fruits, bursting with black cherries (actually an almost medicinal cherry flavor I’ve found to be quite common in quads) brown sugar, molasses, grape jam, plums, and even lychee. This is followed with just a hint of lactic sourness,(raspberry or even balsamic vinegarette) bittersweet with further hints of raisins, nutty sherry, and oily dark rum. Juicy! On the palate it is smooth and almost creamy, with a just-right level of carbonation appearing at the back of the tongue just as the alcohol does. The taste is immediately bitter and full of warming alcohol with raisiny, bittersweet dark fruit, caramelly molasses and again, that slight cherry medicinal tinge. Plums steeped in alcohol, port, spicy cinammon and allspice as well as a peppery, spruciness remind me of Christmas(and no doubt this would make an excellent Christmas beer). Finally, the finish is medium-long and drying, leaving a bittersweet fortified wine taste and a warming, intense alcoholic burn as it trails down the throat. Some brewers manage to produce a really strong beer in which the alcohol just blends seemlessly with the flavor- this is not one of them. However, it is still a great strong beer to sit down with and read a book, or simply just relax.

( 330ml bottle) pours murky orange brown with no head due to the alcohol. Mose of dark fruits but predominantly alcoholic. Taste is very alcoholic letting only a little fruit through. Not terribly impressed by this due to the imbalance.

This is their quadrupel. It poured a clear dark golden liquid with a medium sized foam that left a nice lacing. It had a smell of caramell, ripe fruit and a hint of burned toast. It had a strong taste of caramell, peppers, nuts, ripe fruit and a very strong alcoholic finish. Medium amount of carbonation and a thick liquid. It tickled my mouth and wasn’t very smooth. It had a very strong alcoholic taste, too strong if you ask me. It took over and covered all the other flavours in the beer.

In my book, the boarderline of belgian quadrupels is if they manage to use the warmth of the high ABV and not let it overwelm the brew. Urthel is walking a thin line here and I belive they end up on the wrong side, Still a nice beer, but I’ll have a lot of other belgians before I end up here again.

Ruby colour, small white head. Aroma is not good at all, smells like chemical solvents and that ruins it. Apart from that i find Burnt sugar and dark fruit in the aroma, maybe with a hint of honey. Flavour is better than the aroma lets on, but it is overwhelmingly sweet to an extent that it takes over all the other flavours that you really have to look for. Palate is ordinary for the style. This is not terribly good.

Body is clear mahogany coloured. Begie head. Very sweet! Has nuts, burnt sugar and cola in the aroma. Flavor has burnt sugar, colamalt, yeast and some alcohol. Palate is strong and sticky.

mells a little like pineapple? I like it. A little watery feel. Alcohol is apparent in just about every aspect.

Amber with a medium white head. Malty with fruity tones. malt, bitter fruitiness and alcohol. Full body with long, balanced finish.