Chimay - White Label Cinq Cents

I discovered in my cellar today that I had purchased a bottle of Chimay White and forgot about it.

One of the things I like about drinking Trappist beers is the history.  The monastery started brewing in 1862.  When you open a Trappist beer, you are opening up history.

You may have noticed in all my beer pictures, I use the same pint glass but tonight I'm using a snifter glass. There are very few beers and wines that I believe the shape of the glass actually has an effect on the beer drinking experience.   Belgian and Trappist beers are among the few exceptions.   This is because so much of the experience of these bees takes place in the smell.

Chimay corks all of their bottles.  Again, I don't much like corked beer because cork is susceptible to cork-rot.  I did not have that in this beer but I did once on a Chimay Blue.  The cork on this beer was amazingly easy to remove by hand.


This is my first opportunity to drink the White Label.  This beer is a honey brown with a creamy white head.  It has a caramelly sweetness, is very fruity and has minimal perceived bitterness.

Some statistics on this beer from Brew Like A Monk by Stan Hieronymus.

OG: 1.069
ABV: 8.2%
SRM: 8.5
IBU: 35

Believe it or not, Chimay uses a lot of Yakima Valley hops for bittering.  So you'll taste a lot of Cluster, Nugget, and Galena in their beers.  German Hallertau is then used as a finishing/flavor hop.

I'm getting some definite black currant from this beer, so that has to be Cluster hops.

One of the unique things that I found out about Chimay is that they use six-row barley.   Six-row is an unusual choice.  It has more husk material, so the risk of tannins is greater but it has more enzymatic power for converting longer chain starches (read adjuncts) into fermentables.

There is one more reason why I like Belgian & Trappist beers: many high gravity Belgian Ale yeasts cause my nose to numb. It's not the alcohol. Barleywines don't do it and I've had a 4% BPA do it.