Saint Arnold's Divine Reserve No. 2

A few days ago I was at a friend's house, and he's not as much of a fan of beer like I am so he asked if I wanted to sift through some of the beers he's been given over the last few years. We were cleaning out his "cellar," which like mine is a cramped space in the pantry that the wife lets me keep mainly because she doesn't know how to use that space, but unlike mine is a mess of random Budweiser-ish beers for the most part. So I was passing over many of them, but coming up with a decent one here and there, as was he.

He got to it first, saying something along the lines of "Hey, what's this? It's from Saint Arnold's, but it's just got a number two on it. What's Divine Reserve?"

"You said I could have anything in here I wanted. And I want that," was the first thing I could think of. I missed this one when it was first released, and have been wanting to fill in the gaps in my Divine Reserve tastings. Having been brewed over two years ago in a series that is brewed only once and never returns, I was prepared to be pissed if he went back on his word. He didn't though, so I brought it home to try tonight.

It pours a heavy, murky, slow, unfiltered amberish brown with almost no head that's quickly gone. It's opaque, but moreso in the middle of the glass.

Great Belgian quad smell, slow and sweet, with a soft, bready malt smell touched off by a background of molasses, a hint of aged fruit, and a bit of alcohol.

The alcohol hits you right up front, but quickly mellows into a deep, dark bread taste with more aged fruit and a hint of spice that I wouldn't call clove but is subdued and slightly aromatic.

If you've read my recent entries you know I'm no longer a fan of Belgians, and although this has been fermented with American yeast as well, it's a Belgian Quad at heart. I like it though. Maybe the half-and-half nature of the fermentation did it for me.