Beer is one of the most consumed beverages of the 21st century. It’s right next to water and tea in popularity. Beer spices up any social gathering and brings the people closer together. Not to mention, it also tastes incredible.

However, nowadays you will find over 100 different beer styles worldwide. While everyone has a different preference, certain beers are more popular than others. As the popularity of natural wine keeps rising, people are also getting obsessed with natural beer.

This drink is both healthier for you to consume and richer in texture. The Chimay Belgian beer is one excellent example, and it’s one of my favourites. Here I will talk more about the different types as well as the way they’re brewed!

What are the Different Types of Chimay Trappist Beers?

Chimay is a natural beer made in an abbey near the Belgian town with an identical name. It’s a type of Trappist beer, meaning that its manufacturing process is overseen by the abbey’s monks. The Chimay beer has a rich tradition of over 170 years and it’s available in a few different versions that range from dark ales to lighter, golden ales. Their three most popular beers are the red, gold, and blue Chimay.

Red Chimay

The first beer that Father Theodore ever created is the Chimay red beer. This drink dates back to 1948 and has a strength of 7% abv. It doesn’t have a specified IBU and it’s packaged in a distinct red label. As for the pour and aroma of the Chimay red, this beer produces a dark and cloudy gold colour, a few bubbles, as well as a rich off-ivory foam.

In addition to leather, toffee, and a faint hint of liquorice, the aroma includes dark, overripe fruits like raisins and plums. It has an initial toffee, plum, and bonbon flavour with a rather light and bubbly body that transitions into raisins and overripe fruit in the middle.

With a light texture that feels silky smooth going down your throat, the finish features notes of clove, banana, and a hint of leather. This is just a superb beer that makes you stop whatever you’re doing and appreciate it sip by sip. I rate it at a 9 out of 10, which isn’t an exaggeration!

Gold Chimay

This version is known by a couple of different names – Chimay gold, Chimay yellow, Belgian Tripel, White cap, etc. It dates back to 1966 and has a strength of 8% alcohol by volume. This beer is cloudy gold in colour and produces a finger of froth on top. Its flavour includes clove, bananas, herbs, ripe pears, and faint caramel undertones.

The Gold Chimay beer has a somewhat sweet flavour with delicious pears up front. It has a light, fizzy body that accentuates the middle with undertones of caramel malt and spice. The finish gives off more caramel flavour, cloves, and spicy herbs.

This is a pretty great beer that has mellowed wonderfully over the past two years. It’s a premium, genuine Tripel, and I give it an excellent rating of 8 out of 10.

Blue Chimay

The strongest Chimay beer is their Blue (also known as Grande Reserve), which dates back to 1948. It was released as a Christmas Ale and then launched as Grande Reserve in 1982. For long-term preservation and cellaring, you may also get this in bigger corked and caged bottles with a vintage printed label.

The Blue Chimay Belgian Beer has a hazy brown pour with a finger of froth on top and some bubbles. Clove, banana, coriander, and brown bread are all present in the aroma. The beer’s first flavours are dominated by cloves, molasses, and caramel, while its frothy midsection emphasizes notes of malted liquorice and sweet plums. It ends with cocoa and a sneaky, spicy coriander blast that settles and gives you a warm feeling in your stomach.

This beer is complex, delicious, and well-aged, so I give it an excellent 8.5/10. It has a few distinctive flavours that don’t compete with one another. It isn’t quite as nice as Red, but it is superior to the Tripel, and it probably will get even better with time.

How is Chimay Belgian Beer Brewed?

These famous beers are brewed in the Trappist Chimay brewery of Scour Mont Abbey, which is based in Chimay, Belgium. However, you will find them online available for delivery all around the world. The monks use naturally-sourced ingredients and water from wells located within the monastery.

They donate their earnings to charitable causes in the local area or to the monks’ community-based social programs. They also produce a special 150th Anniversary Ale called Chimay 150 and another low alcohol beer for the monks called Dorée (also known as Gold).

Chimay Cheese

If you’re a fan of alcohol and food pairings, I have excellent news! Apart from producing natural beer, the same monastery produces high-quality, natural cheeses that pair wonderfully with their beer. At the monastery, they feed cows the leftover grains used to make beer. They then collect fresh milk, free of any germs and antibiotics, and proceed to pasteurise it, curdle it, drain it, and make it into cheese that is matured and ripened in the monastery cellar.