Saturday night I had dinner at Louie's in Allentown (they have some good beer) with a group that included a several runners who'd signed up for today's Lehigh Valley Half-Marathon. One guy, however, was injured but still came to town from Binghamton to pick up his race t-shirt and cheer on his girlfriend.
Now I like bad, stupid ideas. So the second I learned there was a race number up for grabs, I had to have it despite maybe running for a total of seven miles a week the last couple months. Twelve hours later I was lined up and running in support of my friend Meg (she kicked ass and ran a 1:50, I kicked far less ass and ran 1:50). Surprisingly, I felt pretty good. After eleven years of on and off competitive I guess I've built up what Bill Strickland eloquently describes as "deep legs". Today also went a lot better than my bad idea to run/walk the Marine Corps Marathon last fall, so I celebrated with the best Belgian beer I had on hand.
't Gaverhopke Den Twaalf (Bruin 12°)/ Extra
Brouwerij 't Gaverhopke
Quadrupel (Quad)
A- / 4.05
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | drink: 4.5
Picked up a single at Abe's Cold Beer for $5.25. The label read "EXTRA" and that's just the exported name. Very interesting. This doesn't just follow the typical quad lines of smooth caramel malts. Instead it starts with a mix of dry lemon with tart raspberries, then cocoa and toffee with a very mild earthy mustiness. The aroma is a little cleaner than the flavor with dry, earthy cocoa and a grape juice note. Finishes with a tart juicy feel, sort of like drinking cranberry juice, and no hint of alcohol. I'd like the flavors here to be richer, but this is still tasty and very easy to drink Belgian.
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