brewery battles: chimay v. westmalle
having reviewed most of the brews available at my local grocer by themselves, i've decided that a little head to head competition should liven things up. i'll pick comparable styles from two brewers and drink one of each side by side to see how they stack up. first up, two titans of the trappists, chimay and westmalle.
chimay bruin (red label) v. westmalle dubbel
i pitted the bruin rather than the grand reserve against the dubbel since bruin is a bit more standardized as a style. the beers are even in terms of price, the chimay at 73 cents and the westmalle at 77 for 33cl. they have the same alcohol content too, 7% each. you can see that in this light, the westmalle appears a shade darker than the chimay. the chimay's yeast tastes like, well, yeast, and lots of it, while westmalle corralled it's yeast into a big fat grape tone, which i preferred. the westmalle seemed more carbonated to me in the beginning, and was somewhat more bitter in the finish. when warm, the chimay seemed to suffer, becoming thin and a bit watery compared to the westmalle, which maintained malt integrity and loosed some spicy alcohols that were undetectable when cold.
the winner: westmalle
chimay tripel (white label) v. westmalle tripel
these were also even in price, though the chimay has slightly more alcohol at 9.5% compared to the chimay's 8%. again there is also a difference in color. i was surprised not to find a lot of differences to speak of, really. whereas wtih the browns i found myself consistently reaching for and preferring the westmalle, drinking the tripels side by side i found myself coming up indifferent. both beers were comparable in bitterness and apple fruit tones, maybe the westmalle has an edge in alcohol complexity when warm, but for me it was too close to call. the good news is that you can't go wrong!
verdict: draw
chimay bruin (red label) v. westmalle dubbel
i pitted the bruin rather than the grand reserve against the dubbel since bruin is a bit more standardized as a style. the beers are even in terms of price, the chimay at 73 cents and the westmalle at 77 for 33cl. they have the same alcohol content too, 7% each. you can see that in this light, the westmalle appears a shade darker than the chimay. the chimay's yeast tastes like, well, yeast, and lots of it, while westmalle corralled it's yeast into a big fat grape tone, which i preferred. the westmalle seemed more carbonated to me in the beginning, and was somewhat more bitter in the finish. when warm, the chimay seemed to suffer, becoming thin and a bit watery compared to the westmalle, which maintained malt integrity and loosed some spicy alcohols that were undetectable when cold.
the winner: westmalle
chimay tripel (white label) v. westmalle tripel
these were also even in price, though the chimay has slightly more alcohol at 9.5% compared to the chimay's 8%. again there is also a difference in color. i was surprised not to find a lot of differences to speak of, really. whereas wtih the browns i found myself consistently reaching for and preferring the westmalle, drinking the tripels side by side i found myself coming up indifferent. both beers were comparable in bitterness and apple fruit tones, maybe the westmalle has an edge in alcohol complexity when warm, but for me it was too close to call. the good news is that you can't go wrong!
verdict: draw
posted by wichtelwesen at 2/25/2007 08:30:00 AM
1 Comments:
77 cents for westmalle? I hate you. That little bastard would be at least $4, and they don't really sell the 33cL except in bars (where of course it's $8). Agreed - Westmalle dubbel is amazing and probably better than Chimay, though I think they each have advantages (though without $8 to drop on 66cL, I can't say how or why). I do remember that the Chimay's yeastiness is a positive in my book. Also agreed that tripels tend to vary only slightly (except when they put weird stuff in them), and it's almost not worth buying the trappists over (here) cheap Canadian and domestic tripel-styles. Besides the fact that trappist monks are kind of cool, I think the one advantage is that much of the profits go to charity. I could not find what charities Chimay supports, only that they support those "poorer than them," which is probably a good thing. Westmalle's website has a similar lack of specifics. I guess it wouldn't seem 'humble', or maybe it's a diplomatic move. Who knows? Anyway, I'm outrageously jealous that you can make these comparisons possible for under 4 Euro...
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