Wednesday, October 10, 2007

#35 - Chimay - Ale Red


Chimay is a Trappist beer brewed in an abbeys one of only (correction) 6 7 in the world. Orval, Rochefot, Westmalle, Westvleteren, and Achel are the Belgium Trappist breweries and Koningshoeven Brewery is in the Netherlands. Chimay abbey was built in 1850 on the Belgium French border. Monk's honor of manual labor and being hospitable to guests is where the tradition of making beer started. Today the Trappist continue to brew in the old traditions make world renowned beers.

Similar yeast and spice smell as the Triple, but with a hint of dark malt, and stout. This beer has less foam than the triple but still plenty of foam. This red lives up to its name with a dark red tint to the over all brown color.

The yeast is again present in the taste but far less than the triple. The dark malt stout smell does not come through in the taste. This beer has a nice sweet taste with a light hop spice finish. This beer has a great effervescent mouth feel. The bubble tingle the tongue and cheeks, and leave the beer finishing dry.

This is not as an amazing beer as the triple but it is still a fine beer. I like the bubbles, it's a lot like a champagne made with malt grain instead of grapes. This has a very enjoyable unique taste that I really enjoy.

2 comments:

Stonch said...

There are actually seven official Trappist breweries - six in Belgium and one across the border in the Netherlands.

William Nordmann said...

Thank you for the correction. I guess that's what I get for reading the marketing material that came with the Chimay.