Chimay Rouge (Red) / Première

Brewed By: Bières de Chimay in Chimay in the province of Hainaut, Belgium
Purchased: 11.2oz bottle bought at Binny's in IL; 2011
Style/ABV: Belgian Dubbel, 7.0%

Moving onto the second beer from Chimay, their Chimay Rogue or Chimay Red. This beer is an Abbey Dubbel, and the oldest of the Chimay beers. According to the Chimay website, this beer should give off fruity apircot aromas, and have lots of malts and fruits in the taste. Let's see how this beer stacks up to other Dubbels. 

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Another hazy and cloudy entry from Chimay. I guess that is what I get for ignoring the instructions of "not pouring the bottom centimeter of beer into your glass." I say meh to that. This is a bottle conditioned beer, bring on the yeast and funk. I'm not self-conscious about sediment in my beer. What I like to do is roll the bottle in my hands before I pour it, this way I stir up the yeast in the bottle. Similar to what you would do to a Hefeweizen.

Chimay Rouge (Red) / Première

Anyway....the beer has a 2-finger head that is slightly off-white leaning towards a brown/tan color. The head has since dissolved into a nice cauldron effect of bubbles. The beer is a hazy and cloudy orange-brown color when held to bright light. Under low light it looks reddish-brown. There is some lacing, and it looks to be slightly less carbonated than the Tripel. 

Big, big malts escaping this one, lots of Belgian yeast bouquets. And again, very fruity. I smell clove, toffee, grape wine or port, sweet dark fruits like grapes and plums, apple skins, slight pepper notes, and figs. Are there apricots in here? I dunno. Apple skins are close enough for me.

This has a very big body, and is much more in-your-face than the Corsendonk. If the Corsendonk was a gentleman wearing a monocle, this is a guy in a leather jacket with lots of tattoos named Daryl. I'm tasting sweet malts, caramel, toffee; big fruit notes including figs, grapes; fruit cake. Slight hoppy-ness and slight twang from the malts in the back. There are a ton of cloves and pepper that move from the front to back, and a very medicinal quality to the middle and back. Overall this is very spicy, with spices touching all levels of palate depth.

This is a full-bodied, big beer. This is smooth, but there is quite a bit of carbonation driving through the experience. This extends across your whole palate, and has excellent depth. Moderate complexity. The front end is carbonation, dark fruits, some hints of malt and spice; this rolls into the middle which is spicy and medicinal; the back is malty, spicy, and finishes dry. The alcohol seems to blend in and shows up in the deep, deep palate.

Rating: Above-Average

Score: 87%

Malty....filling....big. This beer is wide, as in "wide load" or "wide ass". The profile of this beer is huge. For a 7% ABV beer, this is dense. If I had any criticisms to level against this beer, it would be that some of the spice profiles seem to dominate the fruit profiles in the middle and back of the palate. The complexity could be a little more refined. It's just a tad muddy in the middle.

On the other hand, the malts are huge. And this beer is huge. This is a big Dubbel, and would pair well with some big meats. This would also make a great winter warmer on a cold night.

This is a pretty rockin' Dubbel, and I will definitely be drinking it again.