TJ's Belgian Dark Strong Ale Tasting

Trader Joe's puts out a Belgian dark strong ale every winter. It goes by a few names depending on the year, Belgian dark strong, Belgian quad, vintage spiced ale, but it is the same idea each time. A big, bottle-conditioned Belgian-style ale in the upper 9% range. In this video Matthew does a vertical tasting of three vintages, 2025, 2024 and 2023, to find out how this beer holds up with a few years in the cellar. It was about 100 degrees in Las Vegas when he filmed it, so call it a little winter in the sun.

What aging does to a dark beer

As a beer ages, oxidation pushes the dark malt flavors away from caramel and toffee and toward the kinds of notes you get in a sherry or a madeira. If the beer gets too old, oxidation turns to lipstick, cardboard and damp newspaper. That is not good. Beer does not always age gracefully. Matthew's hope going in was that the alcohol and the live yeast in the bottle would carry these through.

One wrinkle. The 2025 bottle was made by a different brewery than the other two. The 2024 and 2023 were brewed by Unibroue, the folks who make La Fin du Monde. The newest one comes from Brouwerij Van Steenberge. The two older bottles are labeled as spiced. The 2025 is not, though Belgian dark strongs and quads can be spiced without saying so on the label.

2025

Fresh out of the bottle this one smells great. Dried fruit, raisins, molasses, caramel and plums. There is a touch of alcohol warmth and some sweetness, but it does not linger. The beer stays dry, which is what you want from the style. Matthew would not call it refreshing. It is a sipper. But it does not bog you down with sugar. Nice and digestible, as the Belgians say. Carbonation is lively and beautiful, as it usually is with these beers.

2024

Still well carbonated, maybe a touch less than the fresh bottle. Right off the bat the spice jumps out. Tons of coriander and nutmeg, maybe some ginger, maybe even a little thyme. The toffee and molasses are still there underneath, along with orange and the same dark stone fruit, cherries and plums. Then something new shows up. An earthiness with a bit of tobacco and leather that reads like the aging and oxidation at work. The dark baker's chocolate, the fruit and the spices are combining into something really interesting. None of it is off-putting.

2023

Matthew was nervous about this one. The bottle was alive. The genie had been waiting to come out for a while. On the nose it is similar to the 2024 with the earthy side pushed further. Leather, tobacco, violets and fresh soil, like planting flowers. The alcohol warmth is there but the beer is dry. The yeast has clearly kept working and chewed through more of the residual sugar. It is even drier than the younger bottles. On the palate it is fruity, earthy and spicy. Quite minty too, a peppermint or spearmint thing from all those spices, plus oregano, fenugreek, orange peel and maybe some anise. Super complex. It just disappears in your mouth rather than sticking to your teeth the way an imperial stout does.

Back to the 2025 and the verdict

Revisiting the fresh bottle after the two older ones, it reads as much less spiced, which makes sense. The spice is in there but way more subdued. Flourless chocolate cake without the sweetness, a refreshing chocolate truffle, coriander and cardamom, fruit and dark baked bread. Floral too.

The surprise of the whole tasting is that Matthew liked the older bottles. He expected a sad afternoon of opening cellar casualties and instead got beers that had gotten more interesting. The reason is in how they are made. These are bottle conditioned, so instead of force carbonating, the brewery puts the beer in the bottle with a little more yeast and sugar and lets it ferment again in there. The yeast stays alive. The beer is not pasteurized. The alcohol helps protect it. He has another 2025 in the cellar and plans to add the 2026 and 2027. Expect a bigger vertical in a couple of years.

Watch the video above to see each pour and hear the full tasting notes. If you are studying for the Certified Cicerone exam, this is a good lesson in what oxidation and bottle conditioning actually taste like. The Certified Cicerone course goes deeper on both. Want to taste along with us? The Beer Scholar community on Skool runs weekly live tastings with beer people from all over the world.

Cheers! –Chris