UNIBROUE’S FLATLINING “CHAMBLY NOIRE”

It’s hard to bag on UNIBROUE, given how fond I am of their beers – well, all but one or two of their beers. The latest exception that proves the rule is their dark Belgian-style ale CHAMBLY NOIRE. I’d have thought that this one would have blown me away, but alas, it did not. CHAMBLY NOIRE, packaged in that intriguing dark bottle and doubly dark in the glass, is just too flat-tasting, too thin-bodied, too surprisingly boring to be anything I’d ever want to have in the house or the belly again. It gives off the faint taste of dark, black cherries and maybe brown sugar, but it’s neither sweet nor tart enough to really pucker or please the mouth. It’s really just something that you throw back and swallow, without the sort of “reflection” and “consideration” one normally needs to make time for when drinking a UNIBROUE beer.

I say spend a little time with a MAUDITE, a LA FIN DU MONDE or one of those TRADER JOE’S VINTAGE ALEs, which Unibroue makes. Pass on the Chambly Noire, because Hedonist Beer Jive said that it must be so. 5/10.