Chimay Red

I figured what better way to get on a roll tonight than to review another beer. Since I bought some Chimay cheese last weekend and have been on a Belgian kick lately, I figured Chimay Rouge (or Red if you want to sound less pretentious... let's go with Red) would be a good choice for my second beer of the night.

If you've never heard of Trappist beers before, do yourself a favor and check out this link. When I chose Trappists for March's Beer Club, I found the history of the beer and the monks to be absolutely fascinating and loved everything about them before I even began trying all the beers.

If you've never tried a Trappist beer before, this may very well be your best place to start. There's a review on Rate Beer that puts it very much into perspective, when Bud Light was running its campaign on "drinkablity", this is the beer that should have been featured.

This stuff is just pure drinkablity beerified. The aroma and taste both fill your senses with sweetness, dark fruit, caramel and so much more with an absolutely beautiful finish. This review isn't to tell you what to expect from the beer. You either already know or if you don't, you just need to go buy a bottle right now.

You should be able to find it for about $4-6 which might sound a little steep but when you realize you're not buying a Bud Light but the equivalent of a (half bottle of) world class wine that's meant to be savored, you'll realize it's a good deal.

As for the cheese component, that's where the money thing gets a little crazy. The stuff isn't cheap at all, about $15-17 per pound. Not exactly Velveeta. But it's one of those things that's worth treating yourself every now and again. Plus wine's got nothing on these beers when it comes to pair with cheese. That being said, the cheese is not at all necessary to enjoy the beer, it's fabulous on its own.

I guess this entry isn't so much a review of Chimay Red as it is a recommendation of it and a blatant declaration of my love for it specifically and Trappist beers in general. Let me know if you'd tried this or not and if you haven't, let me know after you've made a run to your local beer store and gave it a try. If you don't like it, I'll buy ya a Bud Light. OK, that's not true. But I will buy you your favorite good beer if you don't like this one!