Van Honsebrouck Kasteel Barista Chocolate Quad

Van Honsebrouck Kasteel Barista Chocolate Quad is a Belgian Quadrupel that one has to assume this is brewed with some amounts of cocoa and coffee. What I do know is that it is 11% ABV, and has 2015 printed on the cork.

The beer pours with a dark brown with a little bit of red coming through when held to the light. It kind of has the color of liquid raisins. The head seemed thin and quickly fizzed away, but it did settle to a nice little layer on top of the beer. Wow, I’m really into the aroma here. Getting the coffee upfront as well as some Tootsie Roll like chocolate, cherries and raisins, and a little tobacco/leather. Big dark fruit flavor leads off the taste which is melding quite nicely with a more subtle coffee than I got on the nose. I’m also getting a little bit of smokey chocolate, mildly roasted malts, and a tiny bit of alcohol burn that I suspect will increase as the beer warms. The aftertaste delivers a nice chocolate covered raisin flavor with just a hint of coffee. Although this feels a tad thin, it really is pretty appropriate for the style.

I was a little bit leery of this when I was debating purchasing it at the store, but it has turned out to be a nice cool weather fall sipper.