If you have been at the brewery in the last month, you will have noticed we have one seriously big beer on tap - Pasteur’s Quad. A Belgian Quad is just one style in the Trappist beer starting line-up (the others being an Enkel, Dubble, and Tripel).
500L of barrel fermented goodness.
It is generally assumed that the name Quad came from it being four times the strength of an Enkel (and this sounds extremely logical to me). The same line of thought also applies to the Dubbel (2x) and Tripel (3x).
While we appreciate the history of a Quad, we wanted to add a slight twist to ours. A beautiful, and insanely aromatic Moscatel wine barrel had recently arrived in the brewery, and it was intended to be our permanent sour beer fermenter. However, since it was still fresh from the recently departed wine, we thought it would be fun to put an atypical barrel-aged beer within it’s lovely staves before the barrel became forever ‘contaminated’ with our house sour cultures.
And thus, Pasteur’s Quad was born. A 100% oak fermented and aged beer with a dark ruby brown complexion, rich malty character, and a slight note of spice from the Belgian yeast. And of course, it has a subtle aroma of wine from the barrel. #delicious
The beer’s name is an ode to Pasteur’s Quadrant and science nerds the world over.
Basically, there are two avenues of research that one may endeavor upon - the search for pure fundamental understanding (i.e. Neils Bohr) and the quest of pure practical application (i.e. Thomas Edison). But there is also a middle route; it’s the beautiful blending of understanding and application.
The brewer transferring beer into the barrel
Both avenues have their place. But we feel the middle path, the one to Pasteur’s Quadrant, is the best.
Bohr came up with the atomic model because he desired to quantify the physics of the universe’s building blocks. While it was considered bad-ass knowledge at the time, it had no immediate impact on the quality of life in 1913.
Contrast this with Edison, who conjured night-life as we know it via the invention of the light bulb. He was a brilliant experimenter, but didn’t seek to know “why for why’s sake”. Design - test - repeat until successful.
Enter Louis Pasteur, aka the father of modern germ theory - his experimentation and discoveries saved millions of lives (rabies and anthrax vaccines) and also saved millions of palettes from the perils of “sour” wine, beer, and milk via his “pasteurization” process.
I’m fairly sure all beer before Louis Pasteur was sour, which at first sounds amazing, but then you think about the rickety process of beer making prior to the industrial revolution and the complete lack of hygiene knowledge, and you’ll swiftly come to the conclusion that sour beer was just plain bad back then.
At Autumn Arch, there’s a tangible purpose to our fun experimentation and pursuit of interesting beer. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.