(Courtesy Brewery Ommegang)

Untappd is a popular geosocial networking service and mobile phone app that allows its users to rate the beers they’re drinking, and share those check-ins and their locations with their friends.

And with 2021 now in the rear view mirror, Untappd recently named the platform’s most popular Belgian Quads, a beer style with roots which date back to sixth century Europe when monks brewed beers as a way to generate income and lessen the dangers of tainted water.

The Belgian Quad is rooted in the Belgian Trappist beer tradition; only beer brewed by a protected and certified order of abbey monks may be called Trappist. Secular breweries will use the moniker “abbey-style” to reflect beers brewed in the Trappist tradition.

Generally, a lineup of Trappist beers would consist of a few styles: a single, a dubbel, a tripel and eventually quadrupels, also known as “quads.”

Famous Belgian Trappist beers began to emerge in the mid-1800s from monasteries such as Westmalle and Westvleteren. However, the quadrupel, as Untappd correctly notes, “wouldn’t make an appearance until 1991 when Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven, a Dutch Trappist Brewery in the Netherlands, brewed the first quad called La Trappe Quadrupel. Today, this still remains one of the top Belgian quads in the world.”

Belgian Quadrupels (Flemish for ‘quadruple’) are generally high octane (9.1% -14.2% ABV) dark ales characterized by the use of rich roasted Belgian malts, candi sugar and of course the trademark Belgian yeast.

Quads are complex, nuanced and sweet beers with notes of dark fruits such as figs, raisins, dates and plums. Quads also age in interesting ways.

The most famous Belgian quads still come from Europe, although three American craft breweries, did make this list.

And now (drum roll please)…

Untappd’s 6 Highest-Rated Belgian Quads of 2021

1. Trappist Westvleteren 12 – Brouwerij De Sint-Sixtusabdij van Westvleteren
2. La Trappe Quadrupel – Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven
3. Skyscraper – Nøgne Ø
4. Warmth – Tree House Brewing Company
5. The Reverend – Avery Brewing Co.
6. Three Philosophers Double Chocolate – Brewery Ommegang

Founded by Greg Avola and Tim Mather in 2010, Untappd’s check-in’s provided the data used in this ranking.