Chimay Tripel: Closer to Heaven than Me and Thee...
Written: Apr 25 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wonderfully complex, big, malty, hoppy ale...
Cons: Eventually, the bottle runs empty...
The Bottom Line: "There is no such thing as a bad beer." --Father Flanagan;
"Chimay White is the best beer made." --Father Theodore;
"You padres friggin' ROCK!" --mrkstvns
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Chimay Triple |
Of the Trappist monastery breweries, Chimay is the undisputed big boy of the group, it's beers more widely known and more widely exported than any of the other breweries.
The beers are brewed at the Abbaye de Scourmont in the town of Chimay. The abbey isn't particularly old, as far as monasteries go. It was established in 1850, with the brewery being added in the early 1860s. They've also become famous for their "red, white, and blue" spirit, referring to their beers by the color of their bottle caps. The beer that I'm reviewing here, the tripel is also known as the "white", though it is sometimes labeled "Cinq Cents" -- whether you know it as Chimay "white", "tripel", or "cinq cents", they're all the same thing, which is heaven in a bottle.
A Big Glass of Big Beer...
A right glass for every beer. For Trappist ales, the "right" glass is a big, wide mouthed schooner. Since I have one on hand from Chimay, that's the one I'll use to sample this fine brew. So without further ado, let's carefully commence to pouring (carefully, because this is a live real ale, so it does have yeast sediment. My preferred way to pour a beer like this is to carefully pour about 75% of the beer into a glass, sample and enjoy, then swirl the remaining beer in the bottle and pour it straight into the glass, obviously introducing lots of haze.)
So anyway, tops off and bottoms up!
Appearance:
The beer pours with an enormous head of thick, dense foam. It's brilliantly clear on a careful pour, with a bright orange color (very close in appearance to the Orval I just sampled).
Aroma:
Sweet and spritzy with a bit of a citric and peach kind of fruitiness to it.
Flavor:
According to Michael Jackson, Chimay's long-time brewmaster, Father Theodore, always chose the white as his very favorite of the Chimay beers, citing its somewhat dry, hoppy character.
It is hoppy in the flavor, no doubt about it, but like most Trappist tripels, it is also quite sweet and malty. When I taste the Chimay white, my first impression is sweetness. It has a wonderful malt flavor, with just the slightest hint of the sugary aspect that's often attributed to candi sugar (though Chimay probably does not actually use candi sugar -- their recipe is actually a closely held secret, but British beer writers John White and Roger Protz have published some interesting observations and hints, notably that the fermentables probably derive about 70 percent from malt, 20 percent from wheat starch, and 10 percent from dextrose, and that the hops are all pellets and extract oils). The beer is brewed to 17.35 degrees Plato (1071) and has a final alcohol level of 8.0 percent abv. But enough of the geek-speak -- you guys probably aren't trying to homebrew a clone, so this is probably of limited value to you.
What it does mean is that, while this is a wonderful beer, it's not going to please the die-hard German drinkers who insist on Rheinheitsgebot purity (usually, I'm in this camp, but there must be exceptions, and Chimay is definitely a beer that's absolutely top quality, Rheinheitsgebot or not).
Back to the flavor. As the beer warms a bit, it develops more softness and greater complexity. The fruitiness expresses itself as orange more than anything else.
That hop character that people always talk about this beer as possessing hits me as almost purely aftertaste. The flavor itself is dominated by sweetness and malt and sugar and fruitiness. It's really not until I swallow the beer and exhale that I say, "Wow! That beer packs some hops." But say it I do, because it clearly does. The aftertaste is intensely hoppy and long lasting.
Chimay Tripel is a very complex beer, with every facet exhibiting yet another viewpoint into the myriad elements that make up this wonderfully flavorful beer. Jackson has described the Chimay yeast as producing a "nutmeg like house character". There's undoubtedly a spicy element to this beer, and its a soft pungent spice. Honestly, I don't think I would ever put my finger on it as "nutmeg", but I can see how Jackson comes up with that. I can't think of a better comparison to this character, other than suggesting that you be aware of it when you sample a few bottles of Chimay and see if you can't put your finger on it for yourself. After all, that's really where the fun in beer tasting comes from -- not from reading other peoples' opinions, but in seeing what you taste in the world's best beers.
Overall Impression:
Call it Chimay White, call it Cinq Cents, call it Chimay Tripel -- whatever you call it, I know you're going to call it "wonderfully delicious." Father Theodore picked Chimay Tripel as his favorite beer. It's a tough call -- all the Chimay beers are wonderous beyond words. It's almost certainly well within the top 1% of all beers I've ever sampled. Yes, this is truly a beer worth seeking out -- but fortunately, it's so widely exported that it's usually not too hard to find. Yes, God (and sometimes beer distributors too) works in wonderous ways...
Closely Related Reviews...
* More than you ever wanted to know about Belgian beers...
Official information about the beer is online at: www.chimay.com
Recommended:
Yes
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