Chimay Triple

Everybody needs a good beer from time to time. A wine taster needs one even more often. There is nothing like a light crisp pilsner to refresh you after too much tannins. (I remember German brewers buying a full-page ad in a German wine guide, with exactly this message).

I seem to particularly enjoy a beer on a not-too-lengthy night of work, or after a heavy week of panel tasting when I don’t open a new bottle in the weekend.

My beer drinking is less eclectic than my wine drinking. At home, I drinking almost no pils (lager): the ones I can get in Polish shops are invariably from the big companies, and are quite boring. I either go for an English ale or, more frequently, for a Belgian. Belgium has a huge variety of beers and I generally just like their powerful, grown-up style.

The Abbey of Scourmont in Belgian Hainaut is the producer of the world-famous Chimay beer brand. Despite their wide distribution these beers are still produced on a reasonably small scale at the abbey itself, and all profits from the sale go to charity. Only three varieties are released: the lightest Rouge, the strongest (9%) Bleue which is a very good beer to cellar for a few years, and the Triple (cream label) which I am tasting tonight.

This beer really has all: potency (it packs in no less than 8%, but unlike in high-alcohol wines, I find alcohol is almost never a problem even with very strong beers), crispness, some sweetness, a good deal of hoppy bitterness, a distinctive, well-pitched, spicy aroma of coriander and mint, and fantastic drinkability. It also has the personality of a hand-made artisanal product: not obvious for a beer in today’s industrial context.