On a recent trip to Colorado to see my girlfriend, I happened upon a beer named Kwak at a pub called The Yard House (which I mention because there is one in Pasadena and also in San Diego, both of which have more than 100 beers on tap and amazing food).
I’m a sucker for Belgian beers, which is why I randomly selected it off the massive beer list. I had low expectations for a beer whose name sounds similar the noise a duck makes, but figured I’d give it a shot.
I was absolutely amazed by what I tasted. It was wonderfully balanced with a little bit of sweetness.
In fact, my girlfriend and I were so shocked that the next day we went to a liquor store and picked up a bottle, just to make sure we weren’t just drunk and/or delusional at the pub.
I did some research on the web and found the beer’s strange name actually came from the original brewer, an innkeeper named Pauwel Kwak.
Kwak initially created his beer at an inn in the 1800s, serving it in a very strange glass that needed a wooden holder just to stay upright.
The traditional Kwak glass looks more like a bong than a pint glass. It has a circular bottom that leads to a long stem. Google a picture of it, and you’ll think you mistakenly searched for some kind of drug paraphernalia instead.
After doing the research and reading a few reviews, we decided to crack open the bottle the next day and I was still impressed, leading me to believe that I wasn’t actually too blitzed to recognize good beers from bad.
I got home and realized that BevMo! actually sells it in town. I shared the beer with my roommate and now he loves it too.
It was a completely random way to find such a good beer, but I’m glad I thought Kwak was a funny name for a beer, which is why I initially selected it from all the other Belgians on that menu.
It’s been one of my favorites since I first had it, and surprisingly I’m just now getting to review it.
Kwak has an amazing nose. To me, it smells like a candy bar should smell. I pick up scents of chocolates, caramels and malts all mixed together.
The beer itself looks like it could be a liquefied version of a candy bar. It looks like a slightly darker version of an amber ale, but it is classified on the bottle as a “Belgian Special Ale,” which usually means that its wacko creator used all kinds of weird things when initially brewing it, thus defying categorization.
The beer has a strong taste with a lot of the caramel flavor in particular. It goes down smooth and easy for a beer that checks in at 8.1 percent. You probably don’t want to drink more than one of these, especially considering they come in big bottles only.
Be careful when pouring Kwak. The head forms quickly and it has amazing retention. Don’t be too aggressive or you’ll wind up losing half your beer in foam or from spillage.
Thankfully, I didn’t judge the beer by its name, otherwise I’d have missed out on another Belgian gem.