Today I simply tapped into my nice supply of Belgian Trappist Beers. I “sampled” Chimay’s Tripel … and it was everything I expected it to be. Keeping it short today — running short of time … stay tuned for my update on each of the Trappist breweries.
Beer Mentor
Tonight I had a Westvleteren 12. What is this beer? Arguably it is the most difficult to obtain.
There are web pages out there that talk about the process — you have to call at a certain time during the week in order to get a pickup date for whatever beer they are offering that month … it could be the blonde, the 8 or the 12. Fortunately for me, I was able to snag a couple of the 12s on my recent Trappist Thanksgiving trip to Belgium.
I cracked it open — the bottle is not even labeled — the only labeling is on the bottle cap (see pic above). I poured it and smelled it … not much aroma. Amazing to me. I tilted it up for a taste and got a mouth full of alcohol! This thing is 10.2% ABV. Now I love a high octane beer, but my favorite’s are usually well balanced with high IBUs (hop bitterness). This beer is more balanced with Malt … the flavor is really different … so, actually, before I declare it the best, I’m going to have to have a few more … and (again) fortunately, I’ll be heading back to Belgium to pick up my 2 cases of Westvleteren 12! Stay tuned for my additional report on this. But for now, it is today’s beer.
Beer Mentor
I will recap our trip in two ways — first i will recap our beer purchases. Next I will recap the monastery visits. To remind everyone: there are seven (7) Trappist breweries of which 6 we visited: Orval, Westvleteren, Westmalle, Achel, Rochefort, and Chimay. The beers they make (that are available): Orval (1), Westvleteren (3), Westmalle (2 to buy, 1 “Extra” [see previous post]), Achel (2), Rochefort (3), Chimay (3 to buy, 2 to drink at Auberge), Konigshoeven (6 to buy). Total beers available are 20 to buy and 23 to possibly drink.
As stated previously, we drank the Extra from Westmalle and the Witte and the Trippel on tap at the Auberge. However, we were able to purchase 18 of the 20 to buy. We found the Konigshoeven beers at Achel; so we purchased the beers pictured below (there are 19 bottles in the picture–one is the Westmalle Extra bottle):
The one without a label is the Westvleteren 12. The two we were not able to obtain were the Westvleteren Blonde and the 8. I think we purchased (not including the glasses, cheese, schnapps, and miscellaneous items) about 10 cases of beer (plus several 0.75 liter bottles) — and we put this all in my little Mercedes. Here’s a couple of pictures:
Once we got back, we separated the “load” in both vehicles — here’s the picture of those just before we drove off in happiness having completed our “Trappist Thanksgiving Quest for the Holy Ale!”
Beer Mentor
Ha ha ha! This is great … I picked up three different Gordon’s Finest beers (all in cans) at the Achel Monastery. Today’s can is the Gordon Finest Silver Beer. Since I ate at my favorite Biergarten tonight (ZOM WUFF) and I’ve exhausted all their beers, I needed another beer tonight to continue my quest.
I bought these beers just for this purpose. This one labels itself a strong blond beer … but the last time I had a beer like this, it was a Colt .45!
This one is brewed at the Anthony Martin brewery.
Beer Mentor
Here we are at day three on our Trappist Thanksgiving. We started the day with a nice breakfast at the Auberge de Poteaupre and then drove over to the Notre Dame de Scourmont (Chimay).
We met our first monk — Father Edward. He was in the foyer greeting people as they came in–such a very nice man and to our advantage he spoke English. Apparently he and the Abbot are the only ones who speak English — so we were fortunate again!
After our trip to Notre Dame d’Scourmont, we decided to drive the backroads back (i.e., avoid Autobahn if we can) — so it took us all day to get back. While driving near Anweiler (near Trifels Castle), we encountered an accident that closed the road on which we were driving.
We decided to stop in Anweiler for dinner and found out it was their Christmas Fest weekend … so my beer for today was a local Hefe Weizen made by a private brewery–Hoepfner Hefe-Weizen. I was fortunate (again) because this beer is only sold within 60 miles of the brewery in Karlsruhe to keep it fresh — and it was fresh. This was a very nice Hefe Weizen; and apparently, in 2009, it won a gold medal for quality … yes! You might notice in the photo that Craig’s drink is steaming … that’s because he was drinking gluhwein (mulled wine … the traditional warm drink at German Christmas markets …
Until next time!
Beer Mentor
Wow! We got busy early this day. About 0900 we drove over to the Westmalle Brewery to see it during the day.
We then drove about 1 hour to Hamont-Achel to visit the Saint Benedictus Abbey. We were able to purchase everything we wanted here (I’ll be posting a few other things on this stop later). This was a nice locale.
After a short tour around the Monastery (and I mean short–not much to see), we drove 2 hours to Rochefort to visit the Abbey of Notre Dame de Saint Remy. This was a very secluded monastery–but we were able to get a few nice photos (again i’ll post a longer blurb on this later).
We were a little ahead of schedule, so we broke out of our Trappist Tour and drove over to Dinant, Belgium (about 20 KM from Rochefort)–this city is home of the Abbey of Leffe (where Leffe beer used to be made) AND the home of the creator of the saxophone. This city is worth a detour if you travel to Belgium … beautiful–even in the rain.
You’ll notice this picture matches the one on the top of my blog — yes, I finally made it to Dinant. From there, it was a short 1 hour drive down to Auberge de Poteaupre close to Chimay where we were staying overnight. My beer for today was a beer made by Chimay only available at this restaurant — it is called the “Chimay Speciale Poteaupre.” A sneaky “witte bier” with hints of coriander and other spices. It is 4.5% alcohol. Before sampling this beer, we had a Chimay Blue along with a cheese tray of all the Trappist Cheeses from Chimay.
Enjoy!
Beer Mentor
Yes! Today was a busy one. We started our morning at the Trappist Monastery of Notre Dame d’Orval.
I will have a separate post of our brewery tour (we were able to sneak in with a group of French students … the folks at Orval are wonderful!) Then we drove 3.5 hours to Westvleteren to visit the Abbey of Saint Sixtus — we thought their cafe would be open and we could sample some beers; however, the cafe was closed and the only way to get their beer is to make an appointment (I’ll have another post about this). I guess my friend and I looked sorry enough that the guy said he’d sell us four bottles (it was raining cats and dogs, we were wet, etc etc).
We then got in the car and headed for the Trappist abbey of Westmalle … and promptly got stuck in a huge traffic jam. What should have taken us under 2 hours took us 4 hours to drive. Wow! However, at the end, we had some cold trappist beer — probably too much! .
My beer for today is one from Westmalle — the special monk’s beer (the extra). They normally make two beers (more about that on another post), but we were fortunate to make the right connections and sample the beer the monk’s drink (see pictures). This beer has a lower alcohol content, but it is bottled the same–just not produced in high quantities. So far, we’ve been very fortunate on this trip…must be the blessings of the Holy Ale!
Wow, what a great time we are having. Look forward to providing the update for tomorrow!
Beer Mentor
Yes! My friend and I are on a journey — a Trappist Thanksgiving. We are going to visit the 6 Trappist monasteries (in Belgium) that brew beer. We will be sampling as many as we can (yes) and collecting them and taking pictures … blah blah blah–oh yes, and buying “fromage” from any of the Monasteries that make cheese. Tonight, on the first leg of our journey, we found our way to the hotel and promptly had an Orval. We were the only guests at this hotel tonight …
What a wonderful beer … I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to the start of our Trappist journey tomorrow. Oh, and we finished off with the big glass …
Beer Mentor
Here I am beginning my third week of different beers. In honor of my upcoming (surprise) trip, I decided to drink a beer that’s been made the same way for 465 years … yep, only 465 years. The Koestrizer Schwarzbierbrauerei has been around a long time … and they make this great dark lager beer called, interestingly enough, “Schwarzbier.” Basically, black beer. Very nice balance of flavor — the head retention was good and it went down very smoothly …
Oh, it was also a very successful day with the claw machine — check it out! I retrieved a nice iron man from the machine … yes! My favorite superhero!
Beer Mentor
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