Judgement Day!
I have said before on this blog that when you develop a brew and sell it to people for their hard earned money that you set yourself up for criticism. It is like any one else that puts things into the market place, they are constantly dealing with critics. Metallica comes to mind here. I have never heard a band so torn apart by their own fans. This album isn’t as good as Kill em All, …And Justice for All was their best work, Load and Reload suck, and on and on it goes. Having just seen Metallica in concert I must defend them as musicians and artists. Their work, whether you like it or not, is inspired and their act is legendary. Still their fans judge, and many judge harshly. So when you make a brew called Judgement Day, you are practically begging for people to take pot shots at your product! Well get the fish in the barrel…Daddy wants to do some shootin’…
Judgement Day is a Belgian style quad from Lost Abbey Brewing. Let me first say that this beer has about the coolest label I’ve ever seen on a bottle. First the Lost Abbey logo and arch is well done, and the artwork here shows the four horsemen of the apocalypse with fire in the sky…very daunting. Labels aside the question is how was the brew, and it was a little daunting as well.
On the label it says it is brewed with raisins and that smell and flavor definitely comes through. The nose has the raisins, and perhaps some hint of plums as well as a huge maltiness along with some hefty alcohol at 10.5% ABV. The pour was a deep rich brown color that darkened up to a black in the glass which was opaque and had virtually no head and zero lacing.
The flavor…its big. Lots of malt and raisins up front followed by a distinctive licorice flavor that gave way to a hefty alcohol burn in the mouth but it wasn’t replicated in the chest, it just kind of went down smooth. This brew however did heat up my face and head. I felt like I needed to put my head in the freezer to cool it off. The mouthfeel on this brew was interesting too, not creamy, but full. It coated the mouth well and stayed put throughout. The flavors seemed to intensify as I continued to drink it.
So all in all it wasn’t a bad brew, but it lacked a certain satisfaction. You see there was absolutely no carbonation to this brew. What ever carbonation existed was spent on the pour and the lack of fizziness in the mouth was missed. That would have made this brew a superior offering. So it was big, bold, bready, and Belgian. Pretty much what you would expect from a quad, but some additional carbonation would have made it wonderful.
-Don
Sounds like a run of the mil quad, Don. We did a flight of these for a Simply Beer podcast a while back, and I was surprised how satisfying some were and how pedestrian others were. I learned that when it comes to quads, go Belgian from Belgium, and you should do okay. My favorite was the Pannepot Old Fisherman’s Ale. It was amazingly subtle, especially for a beer with an ABV over 10. I just found a couple of bottles, which are now chilling in the garage…
I remember you telling me about the Pannepot, and how much everyone liked it. This was a little heavy handed which did make it a little run of the mill. I reviewed another Belgian quad a while back the 10 from Trappist Rocheford. It was better than the judgement day, thus supporting your claim that Belgians make the best Belgian beer. Wisdom from Squirm…
This one is pretty decent but the carbonation thing really is a problem. I drank some Koningshoeven quad on tap the other night…terrific. I agree, for the most part, about Belgian quads being best.
This brew had all the makings of a great belgian style quad, but it fell flat (pun intended). I have heard from several people that this is a particular problem with this brew. I was hopeful that mine would be better, but no joy.
It’s a particular with a lot of Lost Abbey brews. They got some bad yeast last year.
Yeah LA had a big problem last year with carbonation. All my stuff from the sinners club was flat. Some beers like Angels Share and Older Vis still come out pretty good when flat. Good news is, the latest batch of Brandy Share is carbonated. So hopefully that problem is fixed now. Tomme took a lot of slack last year for the lack of the bubbles
I will have to wait for the non carbonated stuff to work its way out of the system. We still have the bad yeast stuff on the shelves out here. Hopefully it will work its way through the system quickly, otherwise the Judgement Day would have been outstanding.
I think I will avoid them for a time. If they can get that problem fixed it would be great brew. You would think they would take that shit off of the market if they know it is sub par, or at least sell it for a reasonable price not the $16 I paid for it.