Beer of the Week

Buxton Quadrupel

Last night I took part in a 'Twissup' using the hashtag #rainydaydrinks. Basically the idea was to dig elderly beers from the depths of your cellar and crack them open.  It was certainly great fun.

My final beer of the night was an original bottle of Marble Decadence dating back to 2007 - and I have to say it had held up exceptionally well. One of the Marble brewers at the time was Colin Stronge (who is now at SALT Beer Factory). 

When Colin left Marble he became Head Brewer at Buxton Brewery and produced what was my beer of the night. It was one of a Belgian-inspired series produced by Buxton and the range also included a Patersbier, a Dubbel and a Tripel. All of them were exceptional and among best British interpretations of Belgian beer styles I've encountered.

Bottled in March 2016, it's still within date (best before March 2021) and I have to say it's matured beautifully.   It's the darkest brown and is a heady mix of dark berries, rich fruit cake, dark toffee and lots of booze (but in a good way - while this is a big beer in every sense at 11%, the alcohol adds to the picture rather than stamping all over it). A truly luxurious beer - and I assumed this was the top of the range for this series until I was informed that there is also an Armagnac cask-aged version which gets up to 12% ABV - which, of course, I now desperately want to try.

I drank this while watching episode one of Van Der Valk, which I enjoyed for the vintage (well, 1972) scenes of Amsterdam.  It seemed appropriate because 'quadrupel' is in fact a beer style invented in the Netherlands. Back in 1991-92 when the Trappist brewery at Koningshoeven produced a beer stronger than its tripel it looks as though the brothers just seem to have gone one higher on the numeric scale and settled on quadrupel!