Chimay Rouge (Red)

bottle - hazy brown beer with a beige head. A lot of yeast and fruity flavour. Some banana. Sweet and malty flavour. Traces of bread and yeast. Alcohol is easily detectable.

750 ml - Dark orange-brown, foamy off white head. Raisin and fig nose warms to soft hints of sweet iced tea. Plummy grape flavors ride touches of yeasty sweet spice. Light to medium bodied, medium carbonation, dark fruity finish. A classic, but has been passed by many others over the years...

Brown in color with ruby highlights. Aroma is of sugar, sweet malts, plums and figs. Taste is of sweet malt, light hops, fruit, and yeast.

Bottle. I would almost agree with those who would rate Chimay Blue higher. However I found that I needed to look beyond the first impression to find Red’s beauty. It’s fruity aroma is very subtle and its look in the glass is all class. Red has great color and head to match. It is a bit over carbonated, but I am willing to overlook it because it has a near perfect balance of malt and hops and alcohol. The bitter aftertaste is just right. This is a very dry and refreshing brew. Not to light and not to heavy. It makes me wish I had some fresh sourdough bread and hard cheese to eat.

From the bottle, pours a hazy dark reddish with a thick bubbly off-white head. Not much in the nose. Taste is thin, some berries, kinda watery. A bit of yeast, finishes clean. It’s ok, but I don’t think it’s as good as its bretheren.

Pours a hazy rusty reddish brown. A thin white head goes away pretty quickly to form a ring around the glass. The smell is very sugary and heavy on malt. Dried dark fruits come to mind, prunes, raisins, there is some apple juice and grape juice. Lots of yeast and almost no alcohol smell. Initially this beer is pretty sugary and sweet with a faint sourness on the sides of the mouth. The hops are spicey and add to the bitterness. The finish is sweet and spicey with a lot of fruityness. Medium bodied with a crisp carbonation. Good drinkability.

While this is an excellent beer, it simply does not match up to Chimay Blue. In many ways these are similar, however the Red has a more pronounced carbonation, nearly becoming acerbic. Despite this, the beer is rather sweet and creamy, with a feeling of clarity in the depth of it.

Cloudy amber with an off-white head. Belgian yeast, spices, and light fruits create a fairly complex taste. Sweet finish, medium body. Solid and widely available.