REVIEW #34: Gulden Draak 9000 Quadrupel (Brouwerij van Steenberge)

Pours golden-red with a near-white head which isn't as large or vigorous as usual for a Belgian ale. Candy sugar and turkish delight in the aroma. Initial marshmallow and caramel flavours mix with spicy (noble?) hops. It finishes very fragrantly; highly perfumed but lacking much of the sugary sweetness that leapt out in the aroma (no bad thing). The beer produces an alcohol tingle on the tongue but it doesn't punch its 10.5% ABV weight.

Gulden Draak 9000 Quadrupel is brewed by Van Steenberge who also produce Bruegel Amber Ale (reviewed here). This is a new beer in the Gulden Draak range, created only last year and brewed to mark Gulden Draak's 25th anniversary! A christmas version of Golden Draak has been brewed in the past know as 'Gulden Draak Vintage'. The Gulden Draak ("Golden Dragon") name itself is inspired by the gilded statue that sits atop the 600 year old belltower in the centre of Ghent. Quadrupel's have become an extension of the dubbel and tripel styles; terms usually reserved for abbey ales but not in this case. The Dutch Trappist beer La Trappe first used the 'quadrupel' moniker as a somewhat facetious way to name a pale which is stronger than a tripel. Several breweries have since used the term for their own strong Belgian pales and it seems to be especially popular in the USA, where its abbreviated to 'quad'. To be honest its still a bone of contention as to whether it really is a separate style or simply a sobriquet for a strong tripel.

• MALTS: 3 types 

• HOPS: ?
• IBU: ?
• ABV: 10.5%`
• bottle conditioned with wine yeast

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