Review Date 9/15/2010
Try?
Re-buy?
In 2008, Quebec celebrated her four hundredth anniversary. Now, four hundred year anniversaries only come around every, oh, four hundred years or so, so it was clear something special needed to be done to celebrate. The fine folks at Quebec's Unibroue brewery knew just what to do: they brewed up a special beer for the occasion. That beer is Unibroue Quatre-Centieme (Four Centuries), a spiced ale in Belgian style.
Unibroue already has another beer commemorating the founding of Quebec: Don de Dieu, which is the name of the ship Samuel de Champlain sailed to Canada on in 1608. Still, you can never have too many beers, hence Quatre-Centieme.
Unibroue's website says the beer is only available in Canada, though that's obviously not true since I picked up a bottle in Atlanta. They call it a Belgian Strong ale in style, though it's moderate in alcohol by today's big-beer standards. At 7.5% alcohol by volume Quatre-Centieme is about half again as strong as most beers, but not so heavy as the 9%-10% and above behemoths that are all the rage these days. That leaves the beer more down to Earth and drinkable, and I am glad for it.
I paid about eight dollars for a cork and crown capped 750 ML bottle, which is quite reasonable for such a complex and delicious beer.
Unibroue
Quatre-Centieme pours to a cloudy golden orange color with a light, rather
short-lived head formation of loosely packed bubbles. The nose, though, is
amazing: citrus, honey and funky Belgian-style yeast aromas all come to the
fore. Taking a sip, I get some delightful notes of the honey and lemon I got in
the nose, along with a more intense version of the funky, slightly musty yeast
flavors.
The more I sip, the more complex the beer gets. Banana is definitely present, as is coriander and a slight hint of peppery hops in the finish. The beer finishes tart and satisfying, very drinkable indeed despite the slightly elevated alcohol content. There's a gentle spicy dryness in the finish that I find very appetizing, and I think this beer would go wonderfully well with a wide variety of dishes.
A very nice little beer indeed, bottled in 2008 but quite lovely with a few years age on it. Of course, it would be interesting to taste it with a bit more aging. Maybe, I don't know, four centuries
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
