RONGY, BELGIUM — The Cloak of St. Martin is a limited-edition Barleywine-style Belgian ale, ready to warm the North American autumn and winter (fermentation details seen below).
The Cloak is Brasserie Brunehaut’s first Abbaye ale brewed using doubled fermentation capacity gained via three new vats installed on Leap Day 2012. This increased capacity delivered enough vat time for the first batch of this labor-intensive 13%+ ABV quadruple. On October 10 at 4 p.m (during GABF), Brunehaut CEO Marc-Antoine De Mees visits Falling Rock Tap House — Denver for a first tap pull of his signature, long planned passion project.
The Cloak of St. Martin is a new Belgian Quadruple celebrating St. Martin’s famous charity of “sharing” his cloak with a beggar!
A very dark quad, The Cloak of St. Martin’s first fermentation, to 9% ABV, uses Brasserie Brunehaut’s signature, centuries-old yeast strain. Rare, exquisite champagne yeast boosts ABV from 9% to 13% during a six-week second fermentation. The Cloak is then cellared six more weeks before final fermentation yeast is added.
The low foam pour, due to high (13.2% ABV) alcohol content, announces with an extraordinary aroma. Robust, complex notes include blackberries, coffee and bitter Belgian dark chocolate. Only 1200x six-bottle cases of engraved, individually wrapped and corked with-muselet 750ml bottles were shipped. Demand seems certain to outpace supply.
Ingredients — Pure Belgian H20 + four malt types, three yeast strains, three hops varieties and candy sugar.