A mixture of two-row pale malts, caramel malts, and special aromatic malts gives the Quad its richness and texture. Harpoon describes its Leviathan Quad this way:Įrmented with a blend of two traditional Trappist yeasts. So maybe this is one of those times where we put style guidelines aside and just decide whether we enjoy the beer on a personal level (a bit of a rarity in this rate-happy world). Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 7.0-15.0% Phenols will range from minimal to high and most will be light on the hops. Hop and malt character can vary, most are fruity and may have mild dark malt flavors. Look for lots of complexity within a delicate palate. The alcohol character can be deceivingly hidden or can be very bold and in your face. On the same path as the Belgian Dark Ale but obviously higher in alcohol with more of an all around character. It’s not really clear how quads are distinguished from Belgian Strong Dark Ales, which the site describes as: Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 9.0-13.0% Sweet with a low bitterness yet a well perceived alcohol. Typically a dark creation that ranges within the deep red, brown and garnet hues. Inspired by the Trappist brewers of Belgium, a Quadrupel is a Belgian style ale of great strength with bolder flavor compared to its Dubbel and Tripel sister styles. BeerAdvocate lists beers of the style as Quadrupels and it lists nearly 90 examples, including some of the site’s most highly regarded beers, such as Westvleteren 12 and Rochefort 10. The BJCP folks also do not list quadrupel as an independent category, but instead place it in the Belgian Specialty Ale grouping. The style doesn’t appear in the Brewers Association’s recent 2009 style guidelines release (though curiously a quadruple Pilsener is referenced, whatever abomination of man that might portend). So a name change was required to describe this strong, malty, phenolic beer. There was inevitably a bit of friction with the seven, then six, now seven again European trappist breweries.
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Up until a few years ago, beer lovers used to call quadrupel-style beers either trappist ales, trappist-style ales, or abt-style. If not a creation of American craft brewers than at least a rebranding, the quadruple/quadrupel style has a pretty sketchy history, even compared to other styles about which it turns out we know very little. The Quad style bears a moment of mention, not so much for what it is but perhaps for what it is not. Listed at 11.75-percent alcohol on the label (although brewer Scott Shirley told the good folks at that it was actually 12.6-percent alcohol), the Quad is a bruiser. So this month has seen availability of the most recent release, the Harpoon Quad.
Harpoon ufo white unfiltered beer alcohol series#
So far in the series we’ve seen a revamping of the Triticus, originally brewed with the BeerAdvocate guys, a nice Imperial IPA, and a very solid Baltic Porter. While it offered several ‘extreme’ or higher gravity offerings, the 100 Barrel Series eventually focused on more traditional styles, such as oatmeal stout and wit, that were not designed to push the brewing envelope, the Leviathan series is expected to forage into new brewing areas for Harpoon. The 100 Barrel Series was initially designed to help Harpoon push beyond its stock lineup of traditional, mild flavored beers. The line is designed to appeal to the niche of beer geeks who felt that the brewery’s ‘100 Barrel Series’ lacked sufficient punch as a specialty release. The new series, named ‘Leviathan,’ will start out with draft only offerings and eventually transition into 4-packs and limited availability on draft. The Harpoon Brewery of Boston is preparing for the release of a new line of ‘big beers’ to accompany its existing line of mainstream ales. So it was with some excitement that I reported last summer about the brewery’s foray into stronger beers, with its Leviathan series.
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See, I want Harpoon to succeed, but I also want the brewery to offer a little more in the flavor department with its beers (although this criticism mainly related to the brewery’s year-round offerings).
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And while people often perceive my thoughts as being critical of the brewery, I consider them given more in a constructive vein. Because it is my hometown brewery, I spend a lot of time talking about the Harpoon Brewery with friends and visitors.