Chimay Bleue (Blue) / Grande Réserve

Brewed by Chimay
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Baileux, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass, Tulip, Tumbler

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

Again, like so may trappist beers this one expands in the mouth. Smooth, with chocolate and biscuit notes. I drink this quite often.

about as good as it gets. Beautiful color, wonderful scent and rich flavor.

MUUUCH better than the white or the red, imho. i’m glad i didn’t let my somewhat less-than-stellar notions toward those other two keep me from trying the bleu. a flowery/yeasty flavor and aroma that was enhanced by the alcohol content. not too vinous which is good. lovely deep rich brown color, slight head. mine was slightly warm from the bottle, so i think maybe i should stop refrigerating my stronger belgian and belgian style beers or something as it certainly tastes better that way.

Rich opaque maroon with a cream head, this beer had an effervescent, zesffully yeast aroma, not unsimilar to Paulaner Hefeweizen (it shares some qualities in mouthfeel and taste as well). This is a well balanced strong ale with a yeasty piny flavor that falls short of the expectations engendered by the aroma. Alcohol is well masked, yet its presence is felt. The finish is somewhat light, but this is a very nice brew, and one I will shortly try again and rerate.

Very obvious alcohol taste that sometimes overpowers the flavor. Very fizzy. Lots of floating crud in the bottom. Very yeasty. I’ve had better Belgian Strong Ales, but this is OK. I will take the advice of some, and let the bottle age longer next time.

Because of the wonderful, sweet, yeasty aroma and deep ruby color, I was expecting a lot when tasting this beer. However, after tasting, I was a bit disappointed. I don’t really sense any complexity in the flavor at all, just a slight bitterness on top of minute malt characteristics. And boy, did this beer have a lot of fizz. The finish is very dry, but not entirely unenjoyable. The bottle was only a year and a half old, so I sincerely hope that I didn’t like it because it hadn’t aged enough. I will have to search for an older bottle, or buy another and let it sit around a year or two.

I really really like this beer. I drank it out of a wine glass, just as they said to. Nice head and great taste, not for those who like weak beer with flavors that disappear quickly. The taste lingered in my mouth and made me want MORE.

<P>The beer pours with a lazy, quick disipating head, which is surprising. I’m used to having almost as much head as beer with belgian strongs. What head did form is a pale tan with gray notes. <P>There’s a strong yeastiness to the aroma, almost like bread dough just as it starts to bake. The aroma is also very grapey/winey. It reminds me immediately of the wine the church I went to as a child uses for Communion. Below the yeast and wine I noticed a smell making me think of Rollos and Caramel Twix with light chocolate and caramel malt aromas. <P>The flavor is an exercise in the melding of light and darkness. The bright flavors of bubblegum esters, yeastiness, the very faint sourness common to the style, chalk and the alcohol (very faint and only at the end) made for a very bright character that both contrasted and complimented the dark tones of the chocolate and caramel, a slight burnt bitterness and an even fainter smokiness. I was especially surprised to pick up on the burnt and smoke flavors, two flavors I’ve never noticed in any of the Belgian strong dark ales. <P>The palate is surprisingly carbonated considering the wimpy head but lacks the cottony carbonation that many of the lighter strongs (including Chimay Red) have that turns me off. The carbonation here balance the slightly creamy mouthfeel nicely. <P>I was really surprised by this beer. It’s probably one of very few of the style that I’d actually buy on a regular basis.

RE-RE-RATE: Okay, I’m rating this on the strength of some 1995 vintage that I just had, which is an order of magnitude better than any food or drink that I have ever consumed. Any beer with the potential to reach such greatness deserves such a rating, and it would get a solid 5.0 if it were like this all the time. Incredible!! Yeasty, champagnelike aroma. Wine-ish, absolutely wonderful malty presence. The complexity of this by far exceeds anything else I have ever tasted. Where do I start? Apples, pears, chocolate, prominent and somewhat Westvleteren-like yeast that I can still taste in my mouth an hour later. I can’t imagine how good this would be after 10 or 15 years. RE-RATE #1: I have to re-rate this as one of my top 5. In a time when I’m trying to have as many new beers as possible, this is something that I keep buying and coming back to. Chimay Bleu : beer snob :: Budweiser : redneck. Great stuff. Fruity taste, complex, caramel, woodiness, slight nut. Malty finish, good balance, TONS of head. I brought a bottle of this to a party the other night that had 3 kegs of Lone Star, just so I could be as out of place as possible. I theorized that if I tapped anything from the kegs into my Chimay chalices, they would instantly shatter. RE-RATE: Just had to give it another point, this is one that I always come back to! No better way to end a stressful week than downing a 750 of this and some good food.

This beer appears lovely. Served at room temperature, I enjoyed the perfect head over the deep mysterious brown liquid. The aroma is seductive--enormously complex. A swallow yields warming, but wonderfully restrained, alcohol. And so happy that the carbonation is in check. But I can’t say that there is really a lot of flavor here. I tried this after a Schneider Weisse and found the latter to have a much richer flavor. I was surprised. This beer has changed, or I have.