Living in the quaint town of New Castle has its advantages and its cons. One of those being a lack of bars and liquor stores. So while I was in the Fort I headed to a megadrunk store and picked up some finer beers and wines that I can't find around these here parts.
The first that I had the privilege of tasting was Chimay's Triple. Now what makes this beer a little different is that it is a certified Trappist beer. What the Hell is a trappist beer, you say? Well first off I will have to ask you to stop the cursing before I tell you.
Trappist beer comes from monasteries that are certified under a few restrictions. The first and foremost being that the beer (and other products) are made within the walls of the monastery. The products can only be sold to improve the monastery or for the monks to give aid to the public, no profit is to be made here. Because people are greedy and most do not want to live the life of a monk, there are only 7 Trappist monasteries in the world that produce beer. Six of these are in Belgium.
On to the actual beer. The Chimay Tripel actually does not hold up to a traditional Triplel. Tripels were originally given the name to describe the brewery's strongest beer. I believe this started with Westmalle another Trappist Monastery that ill be reviewed soon. Chimay however has their blue (review coming soon) which sits at a healthy 9% which makes it stronger than the 8% Tripel.
Even at 8% the Tripel was a smooth customer. It has a hoppy character, yet is not overpoweringly bitter and finishes extremely smooth. It almost is creamy at the end as it coats your throat. Imagine a slightly less creamy Guinness being a golden ale. The amount of bitters, cream, and robustness of the beer come together to create a very fine ale. Oh yeah did I mention it tastes this smooth while dishing up 8%? Have fun.
The beer comes in either 75cl or 33cl, that is centiliters and I will let you do the conversion since America loves to be so different. I went big and it was about 11 dollars with tax. Think a bottle of wine.
I got to hand it to the Belgium monks, they have been doing this for a while and it is apparent. This beer gets 5 Eiffel towers.
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