Beer review: Serafijn Barley Wine

Tonight I am drinking a Serafijn Barley Wine. weighing in an 11ABV...

Why such a strong beer, well, it was due to my choice for dinner today. I decided to make a pasta sauce containing a habanero pepper.

I had no idea how hot the sauce would be, but I was very sure that alcohol helps mitigate the burning sensation, so voila, the choice was made to drink the strongest beer I had.

Luckily the sauce was not unbearably hot. (It was suficciently spicy, it's amazing that one tiny pepper can hold that amount of heat, but at no point did it become uncomfortable to eat).

So that left me with nicely chilled 11% beer to drink in the evening.

First off all about the name, I am in two minds about it. A Barley Wine, is what in Belgium is usually known as a Quadrupel. Beers in this style are Gulden Draak, La Trappe Quadrupel,...

This beer is not a quadrupel. I would call it an IPA, or probably even just a hoppy tripel, which just has an insanely high amount of alcohol.

That being said it is a good and flavourful beer, although the flavour profile does not justify the ABV (to me, the function of alcohol in a beverage, is as a carrier of flavour, for the same flavour profile, a lower ABV is always better).