I love Belgian quadrupels for two reasons: 1) they’re delicious and 2) you’re supposed to. Having recently dipped their toes into Flemish waters with their Sinner Belgian Blonde as part of their limited edition Making Waves series, 7th Day have come back with more blasphemous beer: the Belgian quad Saint.
Pouring a smooth dark brown the colour of packed earth with a generous head that shimmies away, Saint fills the entire room you are in with the biscuity scent of scary strong beer. Don’t be scared though, this is one smooth saint.
On first sip, you’d be forgiven for thinking they forgot to add the flavour. Then on your second sip you realise the first sip wasn’t quite finished yet and had in fact set up a complex embassy on your tongue and cheeks. Then you have a third sip to find even your teeth are tasting the spiced rum notes. By a fourth sip, you’re a little dizzy, loving life, and reminiscing about what a naive kid you were about three sips ago.
Like a true Trappist quadrupel (made by monks who would likely find the religious humour of 7th Day very unfunny) this is beer a building flavour bomb that keeps applying rich and malty stewed fruit flavours to your palate like a coat of paint. Indeed, the more you sip the more you realise this is a beer so rich it doesn’t pay its fair share of tax in this country.
Benedict Kennedy-Cox
Published June 8, 2022 2022-06-08 00:00:00