Friday, January 11, 2008

#127 Trappistes Rochefort - 8

This Trappist Monastery is in the outskirts of Rochefort France but is considered a Belgium Abbey style beer in the outskirts of Rochefort Belgium was started in 1230 as a convent and converted to a monastery in 1464. This monastery is known for being very protective of their beer recipe. They make 3 different beers a 6, 8, and 10 all with the same recipe only adjusting the alcohol by changing the amount of candy sugar.

The aroma of this beer is full of spice with a pronounced clove smell and a light fruit smell like banana or apple. The color is a deep brown with some crimson highlights. The foam started thick but quickly passed to just a light covering.

The taste is very rich and sweet like a spice cake, with cloves and allspice. There is also some fruit tastes like raisin, but the banana smell is not present in the taste. Some malt caramel flavors are also present in the taste, but only very slight flavor. The mouthfeel is full and smooth, with some carbonated tingling in the mouth. The finish is fruity. Like most Belgium's this is a high proof beer, but there is no alcohol taste present in the taste.

This is a great example of Belgium beer. Lots of good spice and fruit taste, and the great mouthfeel.

2 comments:

rjk said...

The abbey is in Belgium, not France. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochefort%2C_Belgium. There are three Rocheforts in France, none of which are noted for Belgian beer.

William Nordmann said...

Your correct, I previously just Googled Rochefort and found that is was in France. I just figured the national boundary's were redrawn at some point since 1464, when a convent was converted to the current monastery, leaving a town that was in Belgium now in France.
Here is a map of the Brewery and their web site which is in French. Thank you for pointing out my mistake I will make the change to the post.