15 August 2008
I got nothing
Posted by Dirk under: been drinking .
About a month ago I read about his beer called Chimay Ale. It’s supposed to be really bad ass beer. Brewed by monks in Belgium. Reading the reviews at beeradvocate.com they use phrases like “Hints of fruit and cloves in the taste” and “Banana esters, sweet spices (eg cloves), ripe stone fruit (apricot), apple pie.” I had to try it. It’s about 10 bucks for a large bottle. They sell it at Trader Joe’s, so I got a bottle of the Red and the Blue. I forced Arcanum to assist me in tasting these two beers. Under much duress, he agreed to be my co-taster.
Arc was fully prepared and already owned two Chimay goblets, which are apparently what you are supposed to drink them out of. Oooh la la! Maybe I shouldn’t taste this beer…will I ever be able to go back to plain old Sierra Nevada or Pyramid Ale? We go for it.
We try the weaker Chimay Rouge (red) first. It’s only 7% abv. Arc fills the two goblets with equal amounts and I sip mine. I swirl it around in my mouth. I tell my white trash taste buds to savor the esters and hints of clove. They fail to comply. It’s ok beer. It’s not bitter at all. It tastes different than other beers. My mouth, however, does not have an orgasm. I don’t taste all those things that the reviewer at beeradvocate.com taste. They seem to have Ph.D taste buds while mine dropped out of school after the 3rd grade to go pig out on 7-11 nachos. Oh well.
We try the Chimay Bleue (blue) also. At 9% abv it’s pretty strong for a beer and it tastes different than the red, but, still, no tastegasm.
So, it was interesting trying the “good stuff” but I think I’ll stick with the middle ground, Pyramid and Widmer Hefeweizen and Sierra Nevada. And console myself with knowing that at least I’m not drinking Coors Light.