Stone Brewing Co. Stochasticity Project Quadrotriticale Quadrupel at 9.3% ABV
Pours a deep amber ruby with a short-lived tan head dimimishing rapidly to nothing, no head. Nose is muted, candy sugar and caramel with faint dark fruit and raisin. Taste is similar, with sweetness dominating over dark fruits, grassy hops, and a rye-like spice. Body is relatively light for the style, with sustained moderate carbonation and a sticky finish with only a very little warming.
Well, this may be tantamount to heresy, but this is another Stone beer that I’m not all that thrilled with – at least, not as a representative of the style it claims to be. At the very least, this is an atypical quad, and one might argue it’s not a quad at all (perhaps better described as a barley wine or similar). The sugars are light and overwhelm the dark fruit aspect, and the body is similarly light for the style. I think of quads as the beer equivalent of a dark fruitcake, and this misses that mark by a wide margin. That being said, it’s not unpleasant, and has its own interesting character courtesy of the rye-like spice of the triticale grain.
7/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
