Chimay Rouge (Red) / Première

Brewed by Chimay
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Baileux, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass

Bottle. Sour/apricot aroma. Hazy amber/brown body with Tall fluffy head. Sweet flavor with hints of bitterness. Taste of citrus and malts, very creamy.

Pours a nice looking mirky brown colour with a foamy white head. The aroma is of malt, herbs and various fruits. The taste is also quite malty and a little bitter with a slight fruity sweetness. Nice finish and overall a good and complex beer.

Again, had this umpteen times but never rated it. Small bottle. Pours a murky copper with thick head that dissipates slowly. Aroma is musty, slightly vegetal. Mouthfeel is instantly thick and chewy. Taste is hard to describe...malty to be sure with notes of leather and licorice (hint) with a very subdued hop note that I can’t adequately describe. Tasty no doubt but, again, young and lacking complexity that I’ve experienced from cellared bottles of this beer. Lovely, just not rocking my world tonight.

UPDATED: APR 10, 2010 Complex noseful of floral hops, yeast, iron, and pollen. Cloudy brown pour with an odd olive tinge. It tastes pretty dry, hoppy, and crisp, but with solid malt and light esters in the background. Dave says this is neither a sipping beer or a gulping beer, but a slurping beer. Chimay Rouge is not very spicy or sweet for the style. It is almost like an American version of an abbey ale, Very enjoyable, but downgraded a bit in 2010, because it seems a little thinner than previously.

Pours a nice hazy reddish almost copper color with a big tan head that leaves plenty of lace. The aroma is lightly nutty and floral with plenty of apple, caramel, and dark fruit (raisin/plum/fig). The beer seemed a bit boring smelling at first whiff but I am loving this more and more each time I raise the glass to my nose. The flavor is at first almost like a candied sweetness, but this is fleeting and the beer presents it’s self with a much drier spicier flavor. This beer has the fruitiness the caramel and the nuttiness that you would come to expect from a good dubbel. However it possesses a quality that continuously mystifies me, there is a defined mineral character to this beer. The earthy Mineral like character was one of the first real flavors that I identified in a beer years ago and it’s been a real love hate thing ever since, but the mineral qualities in this beer only add to the depth and complexity of this ale and I dare say this for me sets this beer apart from many in it’s style. There are also those plum raisin and fig characteristics in the flavor that showed up in the aroma. This is a very silky well rounded and perfectly balanced beer, not one bit of the alcohol is really noticeable here. This beer is better than I remember it being.

Bottle into trappist glass. Pours a rich amber color with a creamy tan head. The taste is of bread, ripe fruit, and a distinct spiciness from the yeast that sticks to the palate. It’s a fairly pleasant beer to drink, but I wish the flavors were a little stronger. Complex but understated.

Sweet and floral aroma. Hazy brown with a pillowy white head. Moderately sweet and a bit dry; hints at fruit (mellon?) and spice. Overall very subtle but eloquent.

Pours a dark murky amber color with a creamy off-white head. Aromas of subdued fruits like raisins and dates, a touch of spice, and maybe a bit belgian yeast coming through. Initial sweetness is good followed by the spices from the belgian yeast strain. Some rich dark fruits really come through in the finish.