Beer Discovery: La Trappe Quadrupel Oak Aged Series

Beer(s): Quadrupel Oak Aged
Brewery: Koningshoeven (La Trappe)
Country: Netherlands
Style: Quadrupel
ABV: 11%

The La Trappe Oak Aged Quadruples are in my opinion some of the best beers that the Netherlands has to offer!

In 2009 the monks at the Koningshoeven Monastery and Brewery started aging their La Trappe Quadrupel in Barrels (or Barriques), and have since then produced 19 batches of La Trappe Oak Aged. The Koningshoeven is also a fully certified Trappist Brewery, one of two in the Netherlands.

Enjoying a Batch #18! (4.5/5*)

Batches are blended multiple times a year, and as such this beer enjoys a consistent release but ever changing taste palette. Once a new blend is created, production of the previous stops, making each La Trappe Oak Aged Quadrupel a collectors item in its own right.

With each blend, the quadruple is interred into barrels (or Barriques) with specific properties. For example the Batch #14's blend consisted of: Acacia Wood (7%), New Oak Barrels (11%) and Limousine Barrels with Cognac (82%). Each Batch has a particular theme, for example with 82% Cognac Barrels, the Batch #14's taste is strongly influenced by Cognac.

Enjoying the #14! (5/5*)

Unfortnately, the La Trappe Oak Aged beers do not come cheap. When a new batch is released they are reasonable priced, at least at the brewery. However, since batches are only created once, and the fact that the beer can be further aged on the bottle for many years causes earlier batches to come with a significant price tag. I recently came across the batch #12 which was priced at €25 (could have been a lot worse).

€100 of Batch #12, Yes this happened :P (4.5/5*)

The most recent batch to be released, as i am writing this, is the batch #19. This batch is aged on dessert wine and should be very interesting to drink. I recently paid a visit to the Koningshoeven Brewery and bought myself a bottle of the batch #19,  I'm planning on drinking it this weekend (if i can resist my temptation for that long).

Oak Aging, with a little Divine Intervention (Source: La Trappe)

If you ever have the opportunity to try one of these awesome beers, i highly recommend it!

Cheers!

P.S. I did not get the opportunity for a brewery tour when i was visiting the Koningshoeven, so a blog post will have to wait until i have had the opportunity to do so.