Ommegang Three Philosophers 2008 Quadruple

I'm a novice and too poor to become an expert on Belgium beers anytime soon, but my first conscious exposure to a quadruple got me excited enough to share. I've gone through advanced certification training as a sommelier, but the coursework focused almost entirely on wine, with only a small nod to spirits and no real mention of beer other than the historical significance of mead. The food rags have talked about beer pairings with food for years, but to be honest, back then I never really considered beer to be in the same league of flavor complexity that you can find in age-worthy wines. My studies and certification got me a hefty discount though, so it became affordable to sample some of the more exotic imports and more arcane craft beers. Since then, I occasionally decide to seek out something new, and in this case I was incredibly rewarded by the perfection of the 2008 Ommegang Three Philosophers Quadruple.

From gastronomic guesswork

The composition is 98% ale, 2% cherry ale (Belgian Kriek). I've previously sampled the Ommegang Abbey Ale and thought that was pretty amazing, a 92 pt wine, er um beer in my opinion. Three Philosophers has caused Brewery Ommegang to really grab my attention though - It was huge, balanced, flawless, hitting the high notes early, on the mid-palate, and extremely long on the finish - delicious, and in my opinion worthy of 100 pts. This isn't the beer I want to drink with chips and salsa, but this is the first beer I've had that stands as tall as something like a '97 Ridge Monte Bello, '82 Bordeaux, you get the idea. The idea that this is a vintage beer which will get better with age is just palate boggling.

The pedigree of this craft beer is as interesting as the beer itself - it was brewed by Ommegang to reward the winning essay in a contest to describe your dream beer - yah ... well they nailed that. I encourage you to try this, no wait, don't ... me and the guy building a beer cellar will hoard it for ourselves, forget I said anything.