I don't think I've ever had Chimay Red, but I do remember finishing off my first World Beer Tour at Old Chicago with a Chimay. That was a pleasant, yet pricey, way to end a 110-beer pilgrimage :yes:
Most of the better brewerys will label the optimum temp to drink the beer at. I know my fat tire says 45 on the side. I usually pour it into a room temp pint glass, and then let it sit for 5 min before drinking.
Source: Chimay - Products of the Soil, Degustation of Belgian Cheese, and Beers of High FermentationChimay Red and Chimay Blue are ideally drunk at the ambient cellar temperature: from 10 to 12°C (50 to 53.6°F); a temperature which gives Chimay Blue a great richness of body and soul!
Cheers to you! I agree with you 100%. For those that don't know Belgian Trappist beers are required to be brewed by legitimate monks in monastaries. There are I believe 7 Trappist breweries left in the world that brew, if my mind serves me correctly. May I suggest the next beer being an Achel brew. The Achel Bruin is my favorite beer of all time. And although it is pricey it is definitely worth a try.
Alot of these trappist beers can be found at the RedMonk (the top floor of the Royal Mile) in Des Moines.
Cheers to you! I agree with you 100%. For those that don't know Belgian Trappist beers are required to be brewed by legitimate monks in monastaries. There are I believe 7 Trappist breweries left in the world that brew, if my mind serves me correctly. May I suggest the next beer being an Achel brew. The Achel Bruin is my favorite beer of all time. And although it is pricey it is definitely worth a try.
We need to have a CF group outing at the Red Monk. It's really a privledge that we have such a bar in Des Moines.
While I completely agree that Trappist beers are probably the best in the world, I would suggest going somewhere else for the next one. The 5 remaining trappist brews are Rochefort, Achel, Orval, Westmalle, and Westleterven. You can probably find all but Westleterven in Iowa. Good luck finding Westleterven outside of Belgium. There are probably less than a couple hundred cases exported a year, and the brewery actively discourages the practice. I mean you can go down the line of great Belgian beers; Rochefort, Orval, Achel, Westmalle, Delerium Tremens etc, but they are all pretty expensive and pretty hard to find for some people. Chimay is probably the exception to that rule, being the cheapest by volume and the most available of the trappist brews.
I'd suggest something from a larger microwbrew, i.e. Rogue, Hook, Point, New Belgium, that's a bit easier to find, and a bit cheaper
I'd agree. I'm going to the place I had my first Rochefort #10 the week after next - the Bier Garden in Portsmouth, VA. The Red Monk doesn't quite hold up to that place, but it is a great place to grab a beer.
As far as Chimay red goes, it's an excellent beer, but not nearly as complex and subtle as it's other Trappist brothers. I'd say it's a good-to-average Abbey Ale, probably on par with other Abbey Ales ("Trappist style" beers that haven't been continuously brewed by monks) though surpassed by some (St. Bernadus for instance).
I suppose I can rate it by simply saying that it's the last Trappist beer I would chose to drink, and there would probably be a couple of abbey ales I'd select over it as well. You gotta try it once, but once you try similar but better beers, you'll probably pass on it.
We need to have a CF group outing at the Red Monk. It's really a privledge that we have such a bar in Des Moines.