BetterBeerBlog

When I think about how fast time passes me by these days, it’s scary. I remember being in 6th grade, sitting in Ms. Fabela’s sweltering class counting down the days until summer vacation. Even getting through a single day seemed like an eternity. Nowadays, the weeks fly by like so many grains of sand in an hourglass. The onslaught of age approaches like the incoming tide and like the shore, there’s nothing I can do.

Nothing except attend the Trappist’s 1st Year Anniversary Tasting Party!

I realize that most of my recaps are follow up to previous posts alerting the dozen or so of you who visit this website of upcoming events. This 1st Year Anniversary Party at the Trappist was an “invite only” event so I didn’t feel right blasting to the world, “I got an invite and you did nooot! Nyah, nyah!”. I felt that it would’ve been in poor taste.

Despite my best intentions, I was late. Between waiting for my sister to show up Saturday morning and picking up a flier I had designed and weaving through downtown Oakland traffic trying to find an alternative route through closed off streets, getting to the Trappist was a little hectic. When I arrived at the Trappist, I saw Nicole behind the bar who greeted me. Turns out I was just in the nick of time before the actual tasting started.

In order to make this a truly special event outside of their regular Beer School-Belgian beer tasting classes, the crew at the Trappist put together a tasting of beers from each of the 7 different Trappist Monasteries which include: Koningshoeven, Westvleteren, Westmalle, Orval, Achel, Rochefort, and Scourmont Abby, better known as Chimay. There are over 170 Trappist monasteries around the world but these seven are particularly beholden to beer lovers because they brew some of the finest examples of Belgian ales.

As with their past Beer School Events, this Tasting was led by Nicole and Nathan from the Trappist, featuring Jay Harmon (from Merchant du Vin) in some instances. The three speakers exhibited an intimate knowledge of Belgian ales that would be difficult to find in many places and I felt fortunate to have participated in this tasting. On the other hand, I feel like a complete doofus for forgetting the handouts the Trappist supplied for the tasting. It was my intention to refer to them as I wrote this post as they are full of interesting facts about each beer and monastery. What can I say? I had the Pacquiao-De La Hoya fight to attend to and was running a little late. Anyway, here are my tasting notes:

Cinq Cents, Chimay, 8.0% ABV

Cinq Cents is Chimay’s offering of a Belgian Tripel. The Trappist served this beer as the “opening” beer as we waited for people like me to finally arrive so we could get the party started.

This beer pours out a hazy gold color with a creamy, moussey, white head. There’s a spiciness on the nose from the hops along with fruity esters that are citris-like in nature as well as a sweetness that that is Pils-like in character and even undertones of honey. As with many Tripels, there is a spicy, phenolic character to the aroma as well. The flavor of this beer is initially sweet, Pils malt in nature along with a low honey note. There is a spicy character that is clove-ish as well as noticeable fruit character. The hop character is medium-low/medium in bitterness that you don’t even notice as it’s well balanced by the malt and yeast flavors. This beer is high in carbonation and medium in body.

Koningshoeven Dubbel, 7% ABV

Among the beer producing Trappist Monasteries, Koningshoeven is the only one not in Belgium, it is located in Tilburg, Netherlands.

This Dubbel pours out caramel in color with amber highlights and an off-white/beige-ish head. Caramelized malt aromas with hints of dried dates, raisins and toasted bread crusts are in the aroma. The flavor of this beer echos that of the aroma. This is a predominantly malty beer with a malt character that is rich and complex. The malt character is toasty, bread-ish, raisiny and date-like. There’s a smooth alcohol character that isn’t hot or harsh. This beer is high in carbonation and medium-high/full in body.

I really enjoy the Dubbel-style of beer, they’re just so tastey and rich; the perfect beer for today’s cooler evenings.

Westvletren 12, 10.2% ABV

My expectations for this beer are so high that I wasn’t sure if this beer would meet them. If that sounds unrealistic, any quick Google search will reveal that this beer is often considered “the best beer in the world” on many a beer-related website. I almost didn’t want to try this beer for fear of being disappointed. On the other hand, with everyone and their mothers writing about how awesome this beer is, I’d be remiss not to have tried it. Westvleteren 12 is an example of the Belgian Dark Strong Ale category.

This beer pours a dark brown/caramel in color with ruby tones and an off-white head with noticeable particulate matter in suspension. The aroma is of toasted bread crusts, sweet Munich malt aroma with dark fruit notes such as dried dates and low levels of figs and raisins. There is a slight alcohol character that is pleasant and not not or harsh. The flavor mirrors the aromas. This is a malt forward beer with a malt character that tastes sweet and reminiscent of toasty bread crusts and dark, dried fruit. The alcohol warms the throat slightly and despite this, goes down a little too easy. When compared to the Kongingshoeven, the Westverleteren 12 is spicier and hoppier. This beer is medium in carbonation and medium-medium high in body.

So, did this beer live up to the hype? No, it didn’t. In fact, it never could really. Was this a good beer? You bet your bottom dollar it is. It’s just unfortunate that this beer is one of the most difficult to try simply because Westvleteren refuses to sell this beer outside of its two sales points, both located on their Abbey property. Still, if you are able to secure a bottle of this beer, don’t hesitate to try it and find out for yourself if this beer lives up to the hype.

Westmalle Tripel, 9.5% ABV

I already reviewed this beer in a past post. The Trappist held their first Belgian Beer School event and it covered Dubbels and Tripels but I’ll review it again here.

This beer pours a hazy straw color with a white head. Pils malt aroma if prevalent, it is sweet, kinda honeyed cracker like. There’s a moderate amount of fruit esters, like pear, as well as a spicy/peppery phenolic character. The flavor is sweet, pils malt, spicy hop, and a medium/medium-high level of spicy phenolic character. This beer is medium/medium-high in carbonation and medium in body. Noticeable alcohol notes with a medium hop bitterness.

Jay Harmon pointed out to us that the Westmalle Tripel received a “100″ point rating from draft magazine but that it should be somewhat expected from the brewery that invented the style. As the story goes, the Tripel style was brewed as a way to compete with the new German lagers that were coming out at the time. While I do not doubt the story, I find it weird to brew a 9.5% ABV beer to compete with a lager of a more modest 5% ABV. As much as I enjoy Tripels, I don’t think I’d be able to drink one on a very hot summer’s day. Too much alcohol. In the end, I think Westmalle was trying to brew a very pale colored beer to match the same color of the German lagers.

Orval, 6.9% ABV

I reviewed this beer in a previous post as well. Nicole was kind enough to buy me a bottle once when I was visiting the Trappist. See how this current review stacks up to the old one.

Sweet, raisin-y, plum, caramelish aromas. Amber in color with a white head. Flavor is balanced between malt, hop and yeast characteristics. Brett character is subdued, not much in the aroma or flavor. This beer is medium/medium-high in body and high in carbonation.

I can’t say I was blown away by this beer. I enjoy this beer but nothing really stands out. This beer was different in character than the first time I tasted it. If anything, you should probably read what I wrote about it in the past as it was more descriptive then. I still am not “wowed” by this beer by any means and I find some of the backstory stuff more interesting than the beer. For example, unlike other Trappist breweries, this brewery makes only one beer, Orval. They do make an Orval Small (or was it light or mini?) that is about half the alcohol. Plus the shape of the bottle is very unique and serves a function. The bottle’s shape was designed to be able to catch the dregs of yeast at the bottom of the bottle so that they didn’t spill out, if you pour it slowly. Like I said, it’s a good beer, one I’d recommend you try on your own, but nothing I was overly impressed about.

Achel 8° Blonde, 8% ABV

The Belgian Blonde style, to me, is more of a direct answer to German lagers than the Tripel is but a quick Google search on it’s history shows that this style is relatively young and is more of an attempt to sway European Pils drinkers. Here’s what I thought.

Brilliantly clear gold with a white head. Sweet Pils malt aroma with medium-low hop aromas. This beer smells sweet and bready. The flavor is similar to the aroma in that I can taste a sweet, Pils malt flavor that is bready and faintly honey-cracker like in nature. This beer has a good amount of pear in the aroma and flavor. This beer has a medium level of hop bitterness. I find this beer to be light, bubbly and effervescent with a medium body and high carbonation.

I can’t say that I am a huge fan of the Belgian Blond Ale style but I am enjoying this beer immensely. Despite the relatively high level of alcohol, I could enjoy this beer on warmer days, maybe evenings.

Rochefort 8, 9.2% ABV

Rochefort 8 pours out a dark brown in color with ruby highlights and an off-white/beige head. Toasty bread crust-like malt aroma with notes of figs, and other dark fruits. There is a phenolic, peppery note as well as noticeable alcohol. The flavor is rich, complex and definitely malty in character. I can taste toasty bread crust and some figs notes. I can also pick up caramelized malt flavors, sweet. This beer is medium-high in carbonation and full in body. The alcohol notes are warming in nature and thankfully not at all harsh or solventy.

Supposedly the “8″ is to designate the percentage of alcohol in this beer but their website lists this as 9.2% ABV. Despite the relatively short description of this beer, this beer was my favorite of the day.

Chimay Grand Reserve, 9.0% ABV

I must say that this beer was my gateway beer into Belgian ales. I was completely blown away and hooked into this beer once I had it. As the story goes, this beer was originally developed to be Chimay’s Christmas beer but someone, somewhere commented on how good it was and why they don’t brew this year-round. Obviously someone listened and this beer is now brewed year-round.

This beer pours out a hazy, caramel color with an off-white head. Sweet malt aroma, like toasted bread along with dark fruit esters and a spicy character. The flavor is malt forward; toasty, some dark fruits like dried dates, maybe some figs, some dark chocolate notes underneath and slightly spicy/peppery phenolic character.

So there you have it, those were the beers I tried for the tasting. As with many other beer-related events, I stuck around afterwards to hang out. I was able to talk to Nathan for a while as well as new BetterBeerBlog friend Frank, who I met at the first Belgian Beer School class. Really cool guy I look forward to hanging out with in the future. I also hung out with Roland, who I also met at that initial class, and we chatted for a bit over the Mahler Dark Brut, another tasty beer. Lastly, I was able to talk with the Beer by Bart folks again. Great couple who I always look forward to talking to at various beer events. They even wished my Dad a Happy Birthday.

Before I left, Nicole managed to talk me into picking up a couple of Christmas beers they had on bottle. I had never heard of either beer before and truthfully, I am too lazy to walk to the kegerator and learn their names. Just know that I’ll be whipping them out this week to do another Christmas beer review. This was a great way to spend a 1-year Anniversary party and I look forward to going to many more in the future.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.