Sunday 12 December 2010

The fifth Beer Of Christmas

Abbaye Saint-Remy Trappistes Rochefort 8





Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a Rochefort around at some point. Or at least some kind of Trappist beer (well it is brewed by monks isn't it, or at least people employed by monks). This bottle was enjoyed at the John Bull of Alnwick, where you get your beer served in the correct glassware.

Since I have discovered the Rochefort range I have always enjoyed them at this time of year. And out of the Rochefort beers (that includes the under-rated Rochefort 6, 8 and the highly fortified 10) The Rochefort 8 is more or less the middle weight of the pack. On the nose it brings dark figgy fruit and dark chocolate before it opens up on the palate with a full dark fruit, yeasty, bready, slightly spicy, dark chocolate complexity. It's bold, with the 9.2% alcohol providing warming notes to the slightly drying finish. Chocolate pastries come to mind, Belgian chocolate pastries that is. Have never tried this with chocolate tho.

3 comments:

arn said...

i bought this not half an hour ago on a Cardiff beer shop run!
Certainly looking forward to it more now, sounds great.

Rob said...

Yeah it rocks. The 10 is also unmissable.

arn said...

there was a few of yours on the shelves there too, not sure the blog photos's good enough to spot though!