Herevana – #188 – Gulden Draak – Calvados Barrel Aged

Here we have something special on a Saturday afternoon, it’s warm and humid outside, overcast. So I’ve retreated inside to have some music and cheese and a beer, of course. So a thanks to the Liquorland Forrest Hill people for keeping a lovely beer selection.

Brouwerij Van Steenberge make the Gulden Draak Calvados Barrel Aged in Ertvelde, East Flanders, Belgium 🇧🇪. It is in the style that is a Quadrupel / Abt and has an ABV of 10.5% – 315 cal per 355ml, and this is 6.2 standard drinks in NZ for the 750mm bottle.

Champagne style cork and cage, no need for a corkscrew this time. The cork is an easy out, with a little pop. The aroma is amazing, apples, sweet.

The pour is a lovely deep bright orange with a lush of a off-white head that is all cloudy and sitting still atop.

The initial burst of what I took to be apples hasn’t seemingly made it to the glass, where the aroma is a much more familiar sugary yeasty thing.

The taste is one of a sweet beer, with an underlying dryness and a hint of alcohol tang.

The sweetness level is somewhat higher and more insistent than I was expecting, I’m sure it’ll settle as this warms to more room and it fills out in the glass. I’m not sure that it is unlike any beer I’ve ever had, according to the notes, but it is a nice and familiar beer of the style.

Which might then be at odds with the seeming coming and going of the apple notes in this, which makes it really intriguing and really enjoyable as a discoverable note. For one of those ‘strong’ beers, this is wonderfully shy about giving you the hint that this is indeed strong, the alcohol tang properly hidden.

Also it’s worth mentioning that I am really getting to appreciate this more as it blooms in the glass, something that I should have more patience for in general I think, that sweetness, the creep of dryness, the note of apples, faint, and the lovely yeasty notes. What’s not to like?

So a beer that evolves as you drink it, as they do, and this one came quite a log way from that initial burst and dip, really coming out and blooming in the glass. By the end I was a bit misty eyed and in-love with this, a lovely sweet sticky toffee sweet beer with apple as a discovery point and a big smile on my face. And not a cheese or cracker in sight, I’m off to have words with MrsPhil.

The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 9 on the arbitrary number scale. The whole apple note thing was interesting in it’s fleeting appearance and disappearance only to re-appear again. A lovely familiar sweet meaty aroma and drop-dead good looks make this a really pleasing beer that I’m enjoying a lot

Music: There were some outstanding recommends on the socials, from them I picked Issac Hayes – Hot Buttered Soul

Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.

Philip himself.

Gulden Draak Barrel Aged Calvados is the second in the series of Gulden Draak Quad barrel aged beers. The brewer ages Gulden Draak Quad 9000 in Calvados (Apple Cider Brandy) barrels for roughly 4-6 months. An ideal length of time for the residual flavors of the barrels to meld with the beer. This is a beer unlike any you’ve ever tasted. Once again Jef Versele from Brewery Van Steenberge produces a gem for all to enjoy. Cheers!

Brewers Notes

Quadrupel / Abt

The Quadrupel, or Abt is a dark, complex, rich, smooth and dangerous strong Belgian ale with a delicious blend of malt richness, dark fruit flavors, and spicy elements. Like a larger dubbel, with a fuller body and increased malt richness. Not as bitter or hoppy as a tripel, but of similar strength. They sometimes tend to be drier than Belgian Strong Dark Ale, which can be rather sweeter.