The Quad Of My Dreams Tasting

After 3+ months of waiting, our Belgian quad is finally ready to drink - mostly. In the last few weeks we've opened about a half dozen bottles and been about 50/50 on whether they're carbonated. I'm not sure what's causing the inconsistent carbonation with the bottles. Maybe we just tried opening them too soon and in the last week or so they're finally starting to be more reliably carbonated. It'll be interesting to see going forward if any of the rest of the bottles are also not carbonated.

The first one we opened was definitely not carbonated, and an uncarbonated beer has a significantly sweeter taste due to the unfermented sugars, in addition to obviously being flat. Amy's assessment of that first tasting was "This is not the quad of my dreams."

Since then though, the bottles that have been carbonated have actually turned out pretty well. The beer absolutely tastes like a quad, and finished up just over 10% ABV. Initially I was worried that some of the sweetness or alcohol sharpness that I first tasted in our quad were off flavors, but after tasting other quads since then I've realized that those are just normal properties of the style. This has been one of the unexpected side-effects of making our own beer - that tasting the different flavors of a beer we make in a particular style makes me more aware of different flavors present in that style even in commercial beers.

As of this writing, we have our saison in the fridge ready to be tasted for the first time and our breakfast stout only a week away from being ready. They're our first beers with starters and with start-to-finish temperature control, so I'm really excited to see how they turn out. Stay tuned!

[ Westvleteren Abt 12 Brew Day ] <---