Beer review: blue chimay

Blue Chimay,

I mainly drink small craft beers. Support the small local economy and all that (and drink something new and interesting at the same time).

But every now and than, it's good to return t the classics. A blue chimay weighs in at 9ABV and packs a wallop of flavour. caramel, liquorice, but above all, there's no need to describe it in detail, it's chimay blue.

For years and years I've been drinking this beer. WHole nights in college where wiled away hunched over a glass of this, discussing the finer points of one pan cuisine with fellow students (the glass was regularly replenished during these sessions of course).

Not only whole nights were wiled away over this liquid. WHole days where spent in bad due to overindulgence as well.

But even now, years and years later, when the idea of getting dead-drunk is as frightening as the idea of taking an exam, a single glass of this stuff is sometimes the best thing that can happen.

Although there is 1 thing which is far better still: A large bottle of aged blue chimay. Aging beer is an art of itself, it requires the self-control to buy something today, knowing that it will be many years before you get to enjoy it.

And it's useless to buy old bottles. THe aging conditions are essential, if you cannot verify the conditions for the entire age of the bottle, you might be buying liquid gold, or liquidized moldy cardboard.

But at the right event, when the right atmosphere is there, a bottle of the old stuff is godlike (the fact that nowadays we have aged bottles which where brewed when we were at college helps as well :))