Vitals:
Name: Abt
Style: Quadruppel (Quad)
IBU: ??
ABV: 9.75%
Gravity: ~20 deg. Plato
Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World
Descriptions:
Appearance: Pours a deep, dark brown; looks like a glass of chocolate. You get a finger and a half of light-brown head. OK retention, with great lacing and a great cap. I honestly cannot tell if this beer has a little or a lot of carbonation because it's so dark.
Smell: Smells like raisins, figs, candied brown sugar, dark rum, and sweet caramel malt. You get a faint hint of chocolate as well. Definitely roasted malts - I'm expecting this to have a huge malt backbone to it.
Taste: The caramelized sugar and malts are up front, followed by the spiciness of the Belgian yeast. You don't really get that nice Belgian yeasty funk to it, though, which is unfortunate. You get some raisin/fig taste as well at the finish with a slightly boozy rum-like taste. This beer is well balanced, but I almost feel like there's too much going on, muddling things up for my palate.
Mouthfeel: Small amount of carbonation. This beer is heavy and syrupy on the mouth and REALLY stays on your palate for a while.
Overall Grade: B
Comments: This is a solid beer; not my favorite, but definitely a good intro to the Quad style. This would be much much better to sip by a fire in the winter than to drink on a hot summer day. That's one of the biggest problems I have with these dark beers during the summer - I want to try them out to give them a shot, but I don't feel like conditions are optimal for truly appreciating them as I should. Oh well - give this a shot, as it's only available for a limited time (as all Thumbprint Series beers are). This strikes me as something that might age well into the winter, so you could get it now and hold onto it to enjoy it during some nice cold weather.
Cheers,
Hurls
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