Cooperstown

Around Valentine's Day this year there were a number of chocolate flavored beers released. I picked up a bottle of each one but I didn't have time to get to all of them so I'm trying to empty out the chocolate stock in the fridge before it's warm enough to drink a Pilsner on the deck. Ommegang's Chocolate Indulgence caught my attention because it has a bold name, classy packaging and generally conveys a sense of "I know what I'm doing here." So, tonight I broke out the Ommegang goblet and pocked the cork on this bottle of "True Belgian-Style Chocolate Stout."

OK, so this beer is called Three Philosophers... there are three silhouettes on the label and everything. Also printed on the label, however, is "Quadrupel" ...a name which indicates this beer is brewed with four times as many fermentables. Wait, three dudes but four fermentables? Something doesn't add up here. What happened to the fourth philosopher? Did he get faced and oversleep on the day the other guys got their silhouettes painted for the label? I can only assume the fourth philosopher was responsible for balancing the balancing this beer before it hit production because this Quadrupel is a bit unwieldy.

I had high expectations for Ommegang's Rare Vos. All I've ever heard about this brewery is that they produce stellar beers that are true to the Belgian originals. So when I picked up this bottle of Rare Vos I was expecting it to be the next best thing to setting foot in Brussels. Perhaps I was setting this beer up for failure, I mean, it'd have to be really good to live up to my expectations. But, that's how the stage was set - with me expecting a perfect beer as I popped the cork on this bottle and poured it into my tulip glass. I do have to say, my first impressions weren't so great. For starters, I couldn't get a read on this beer's aroma. It had a special sort of spiciness that I couldn't identify. Not that that was a bad thing, I enjoy a good challenge... the problem was what I didn't smell at all. Where was the sour, where was the corriander, the citrus and all those other telltale aromas that define a Belgian beer? I couldn't find them and considered it 'strike one' for the Rare Vos.