Friday, January 18, 2008

IN LOVE WITH THE ROCHEFORTS

I’ve made no secret of my amore for TRAPPISTES ROCHEFORT 8, which might be the greatest beer in the world, let alone Belgium. TRAPPISTES ROCHEFORT 10 was outstanding, the one time I had it. I’ve now completed the trifecta and enjoyed – nay, adored, my first bottle of TRAPPISTES ROCHEFORT 6, a simply outstanding beer that’ll go on the Hedonist Beer Jive 35 next time I get around to updating it. Why, thou asks, is it so magical? Well, honestly, I expected the “6” would be the thinner, weaker version of its brethren – and how wrong I was. This strong, dark ale is creamy and very, very brown, with a thin wisp of white foam that stuck around on top of the beer the entire “length” of the glass. I drank in its rich notes of toffee, cherries and brown sugar. As it was winding down I cursed god & man & myself for not having another one around. What must this taste like on tap in Belgium? Belgium, are you out there? TRAPPISTES ROCHEFORT 69/10!

3 comments:

Matt Walker (mwsf) said...

Rochefort beer isn't packaged for draft at all. Probably a good thing too, beer like this is meant to be bottled. I toured the brewery at the abbey last March and we tasted a three-year-aged Rochefort 6 that was unreal!

Good info from our trip here:

http://www.homebrewchef.com/Inside_Rochefort.pdf

Andrew Stroehlein said...

Completely agree on Rochefort 6 and 10, though we had a recent tasting here, and the 8 was not enjoyed by all, strangely enough. http://40beersat40.blogspot.com/2008/01/rochefort-day.html

luKe said...

Jay,

Believe it or not but I wasn't even aware of the existence of the Rochefort 6! This site (http://users.pandora.be/gerritvdb/rochefort/English/RochefortIndex.htm) says it is indeed almost unfindable and probably brewed only once a year. Thanks for writing about it! It's kinda weird to discover Belgian beers through an American site though.

And do I repeat myself when saying that you're still very welcome at my house? I have 5 West-Vleteren crates in my cave and I would love to hear your comments about this godlike trappist beer! And these nearby places (http://www.brugsbeertje.be/index_en.htm) and (http://www.kaffeedehopduvel.be/) and (http://www.dehopduvel.be/Engels/engels.html) will send you straight to heaven!

Cheers,
Luke