Abbaye Des Sept Minutes IV

From an alcohol standpoint, IV is the strongest entry of the Abbaye Des Sept Minutes series from Tooth and Nail and Godspeed, weighing it at a robust 10%. The Ontarian take on the Belgian quadrupel comes in 355mL cans. The beer inside is handsome bronze, with a sudsy cream head.

AD7M 4 has a malty and sweet aroma, with treacle and raisin notes, with just a hint of licorice. The flavour is big on dried fruit with some sweetness in the early going and a shift to molasses bitterness in the back end. The beer tastes boozy as hell, but the flavours are still subtle.

In my opinion, IV is the highlight of the Abbaye Des Sept Minutes series—it’s the most true to style entry and it has the most complex flavour.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

4x4 Belgian Quad

One might not expect to find a Belgian-style quadrupel in Northern Ontario, but that just what one gets when one cracks a 471mL can of 4x4 Belgian Quad, a 10.5% offering from Sudbury’s Stack Brewing.

First off, I should probably address what was, for me at least, the elephant in the room: a quad in a can?! I was pretty wary, but I persevered, dear reader, because I owe it to my art!

Stack’s quad was a fairly dark entry—it started pouring a walnut brown and just kept getting darker as my glass filled up. Atop this dark brown ale resided a slight cap of loose tan head. 4x4 had a pretty feisty aroma, characterized by a generous measure of malt, fruitcake, and a bit of spice. On the flavour side of the equation, I found many of those same sweet notes, but also leather and a slightly tangy fruit finish reminiscent of a red wine. It is in the finish that one gets the first real indication of how strong this stuff actually is.

All things considered, 4x4 was a pretty cheeky offering from one of Ontario’s unsung brewing bests, though not nearly their best work. First off, I have a bit of a hard time classing this as a quad—it has the strength and some of the right flavour elements, but it lacks the heady funk that comes with Belgian yeast. For me, this beer was closer to a barley wine or some other genre of winter ale. But classification aside, I found this brute to be a relatively tasty effort. It didn’t have the full-bodied texture I was hoping for, but the flavour was interesting and many-layered.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.