Archive for the 'Chimay' category
Chimay “Red” Premiere
I’m glad we had this tasting of the three Chimay brews, because I’ve been anxious to differentiate these for a while. This third entry is very tasty, and quite different from the first two. The pour is a cloudy dark red, and the aroma is fantastic – lots of dark cherry and anise. In the mouth, this beer is both sweet and bitter with a tangy bite. I get lots of dark cherry, just a slight hoppy bitterness, and a tart tangy smack in the tongue around the middle of the mouth. While this isn’t my favorite of the three, it is the most interesting. While the Blue takes the gold medal, this gets a ‘most-intriguing’ honorable mention
Chimay Blue “Grande Reserve” Ale
This Chimay offering belongs to the Belgian dubbel category. Also a Trappist offering, as are all of Chimay’s beers, the beer has a very dark brown hue with a cream-colored rocky head. The aroma and taste are quite strong, in terms of alcohol content. However, the alcohol is well offset by a strong floral flavor with some fruit and a bit of caramel. Overall, a rather complex beer, but well characteristic of the style. I would recommend this for someone who has a liking for a typical English brown ale, but is beginning to find them mundane. The extra complexity of the Chimay gives this beer an edginess in comparison.
Chimay Cinq Cents White Ale
This is a fairly typical ale of the Belgian tripel variety. Furthermore, it comes from one of only 7 breweries in the world that can sell Trappist ales. This means that this beer is made in Belgium by the hands of actual monks in an actual monestary. The color of this beer is a cloudy light orange with a rather stark white head and the aroma is very floral and fruity. The taste is excellent – fruity and spicy, with just a slight bite of bitterness resulting from the hops used. Chimay is surely the most well-known of the Trappist ales, which is probably why this is considered by many as a benchmark for the tripel variety. Definitely a good beer – but, for the money, there are equally good beers of this variety available domestically.
