375 ml. bottle. Dark bright ruby pomegranate amber, creamy white head that quickly disappears. Nose is figs, raisin, sugar, cooked pear, faint Be soap, yeast, fermenting profile, recognizable with added sweetness, vanilla, oak & fig / sugar. Faintly lively carbonation. Lots of sweet oak here, sugar, candy, figs, caramel, lots of oak, BE dark fruits, caramel, toffee, truly tasty, reminiscent in a great way of some vanilla / oak heavy La Trappe OA beers. Lingering vanilla, base is recognizable but smoothed out with lots of vanilla, oak, sweet, caramel, figs,… Best Chimay I have had so far, superb.

F: huge, off-white, slowly collapsing. C: brownish, red hue against the light, clear. A: nice perfumed fruity, plums, bit whisky, banana, toffee, port wine, bit caramel, bit strawberries even, complex. T: malty base, banana, plums, warming alcohol, blue grapes, bit chocolate, woody, bit watery cherries, toffee, nice complex taste all together, full body, higher carbonation, this is so great, fully enjoyed, 0,375l bottle from Espace Chimay.

F: huge, off-white, slowly collapsing. C: brownish, red hue against the light, clear. A: nice perfumed fruity, plums, bit whisky, banana, toffee, port wine, bit caramel, bit strawberries even, complex. T: malty base, banana, plums, warming alcohol, blue grapes, bit chocolate, woody, bit watery cherries, toffee, nice complex taste all together, full body, higher carbonation, this is so great, fully enjoyed, 0,375l bottle from Espace Chimay.

Sesongavslutning på Mi2 Cardinal, juni-18, og denne flasken ble en av kveldens to ubetingede höjadare, så takk til Sigmund og Cardinal for disse to! (Den andre var BFM Abbaye de Saint Bon-Chien 2015). Klar rødlig mahogny med flott skum som varer forbi siste dråpe. Å du salige for en saftighet, fylde, elegant potens og kompleksitet. Her er der ingen skarpe kanter, bare ren salighet og blide fjes rundt bordet. Et lekkert øl for spesielle anledninger, og et strålende eksempel på hvordan og hvorfor noen øl kan fatlagres.

Shared bottle at Mi2 at Cardinal 18.06.18. Hazy dark copper. Persistent beige head and lacing. Complex aroma of old English pub carpets, wood from an old barn, oak and vanilla. Fine taste of dried berries, oak, roganberries, heathee and a slight hint of unpeated Whiskey.

Shared bottle at Cardinal, Stavanger. Pours hazy dark copper with off-white head. Aroma of dark dried fruits, caramel, some notes of whisky. Tastes slightly sweet with little bitterness. Medium bodied, highly carbonated.

375 ml corked & caged bottle, Cardinal Pub & Bar, Stavanger. ABV is 10.5%. Aged in French oak, American oak and whisky barrels. Colour between mahogany and ebony, large off-white head. Aroma of oak, whisky, brown sugar, caramel, dark dried fruits and mild spices. Rich and malty flavour with the same elements as the aroma, warming mouthfeel.

The eighth version in this exciting series of barrel aged Chimays, this one partially aged on whisky barrels (next to dry French and American oak). After the first five experiments in this project, each with different types of barrels and different proportions of each barrel, Chimay apparently decided to make just one version per year, and this whisky edition represents the 2018 vintage. Bottle from Dranken Geers in Ghent shared with Goedele. Greyish off-white, moussy, fizzing head forms enthusiastically and immediately builds up to a few inches thickness, but quickly recedes to an irregular, moussy ring and some ‘dots’ in the middle, leaving behind shreds around the edge of the glass; initially very lightly hazy (almost clear), warm, deep bronze colour with vermillion red hue, obviously becoming more hazy and deeper brownish with sediment. Strong, perfumey, noble and very enticing bouquet of overripe blue plums and plum wine, Parfait Amour liqueur, tawny port, candied banana, lots of toffee and liquid butterscotch, lots of dry ‘furniture’ oak including a very generous amount of its typical vanilla-tinged scent, whisky noticeable, lavender perfume, rosewater, walnut liqueur, touch of soggy toast, brownies, fig compote. Sweet, ‘praline’-like onset, baked banana, black cherries bursting with fruit sugars, plum, blackberry jam, with a fresh fig- and blue grape-tinged sourish note underneath; lively, fizzy carbonation but in a refined way, adding minerally side notes along the way. Full yet supple and lean, slightly resinous body; lovely toffeeish, pecan nut-, brown bread crust- and dry brownies-like maltiness with a thin chocolatey edge to it. Woody tannins – with a strong vanilla-ish oak character – provide drying balance in the finish, accentuated by a late, herbal hop bitterish note and a lot of warming, eventually slightly astringent alcohol, the astringency of which does not bother me here as it is colourful, liqueurish and, in the very end, a touch whisky-like in flavour. I had all Chimay Barriques and loved all of them, but in comparison with the first attempts, this is even more deep, noble and elegant, with all the right flavours and aromas in the right places. Ravishing, a world class quadrupel without a doubt, for me personally even better than the already superb previous rum and cognac editions. In these wild craft beer times, also in Belgium, it seems the trappist monks of Notre Dame de Scourmont, having been criticised in the past for their technical shortcuts necessary to increase production speed and volume at the expense of their beers’ quality, are keeping up with the times and there is no doubt in my mind that many enthusiastic young craft brewers tinkering with barrel aging (in Belgium but perhaps even more so in the Netherlands) can learn from the restraint, refinement and class this masterpiece exhibits. A brief thank you note should go to Koningshoeven for inspiring the Chimay trappists to barrel age their quad – who knows, maybe sooner or later Rochefort and Westvleteren will also be inspired to do the same thing with their respective world class quads? Not much chance, I guess…