Tasting Notes: Chimay Premiere (Red)

Chimay Premiere (Red) (Belgium: Abbey Dubbel(Trappist): 7% ABV)

Visual: Ruby red (imagine that) with a fizzy brownish head of no life. Light carbonation.

Nose: Black cherries, brown sugar and plum. Lots of candy cane as well. Liquorice hints and hot cross buns. Very sweet and fresh.

Body:  Blackcherries, plum brandy. Buttered malt loaf. Honey. Barley and malt. More brown sugar and some nuts.

Finish: Malt loaf, liquorice. Slight bitter. Harvest influenced flavours. Peanuts.

Conclusion: I have heard this described as the most English ale styled of the Chimay beers.  While I do not entirely agree with the comparison I can see where the statement was coming from.

The nose is full abbey dubbel style, full of fruit and sugar. The body is where the comparison comes into play, with the fruit flavours and sweetness having a slight similarity to some of those found in Fullers 1845 for example (a good thing in my opinion considering the high quality of that beer) It is still distinctly a Belgium beer however, with just a hint to the English ale that earned this digression.

A weighty Dubbel, with a masked ABV. You could imagine drinking it pint style without realising its potency until your head hits the ground.

A very solid top quality beer. Then again it is trappist ale so I expect nothing less.

Background: A kind gift from Paul (thanks guv). Chimay was, to my recollection, the first Trappist, and possibly first ever proper Belgium (by which I mean not “wife beater” Stella Atrois) beer I ever drank, back when I was in the Evil Eye Lounge in York. As such it is a beer I thank as one of my break through beers into the quality beer world.  As an authentic Trappist beer (one of only six such breweries in the world) it is made at the abbey by the monks themselves.