Here's a guest post from Matt, the beer expert.
On Saturday, we decided to have lunch at the Covent Garden Market downtown so we could see them setting up for the World Figure Skating Campionships and pick up a few things at the market for Jen's carne adovada tacos. While Jen was off looking for dried chiles, I was at SmithCheese picking up some queso fresco when I happily stumbled across some Chimay cheese, specifically their Le Chimay à la Bière.
Now, to back up a step or two, Chimay is a
Belgian Trappist brewery, one of only eight Trappist breweries in the world.
The monks at these monasteries truly do God's work, brewing some truly
wonderful beers. In fact, Chimay Bleue / Blue, which is technically Chimay
Grande Réserve but is known as Blue because of its blue-coloured label, was
probably the first beer that truly showed me how utterly wondrous beer could
be.
So, did I pass up the chance to buy cheese
made by honest-to-goodness monks to pair with one of my all-time favourite
beers? Sacre bleu. I most certainly did not.
I'd been saving this bottle of Chimay Blue
for about two years. For you non-beer geeks out there, don't try this with your
Bud Light. Chimay Blue is bottle conditioned, which means there is still active
yeast in the bottle, which also means it can be aged and the fermentation continues
in the bottle. Science! Thankfully, the LCBO is possibly going to be getting
more Chimay Blue this spring, so I didn't feel too guilty popping open my
bottle for this tasting.
How to describe Chimay Blue? Have you ever
picked fresh apricots during a golden sunset with Rachel Weisz (or Daniel
Craig) and then had those apricots with a caramel fondue that is warm and
lightly spicy but also light and delicate? No? Neither have I but that is what
Chimay Blue tastes like.
As for the Le Chimay à la Bière cheese, it
was washed with Chimay beer (not necessarily Chimay Blue) and has some similar
apricot notes to the beer. However, it is also quite salty and wonderfully
creamy, which is a nice contrast to the beer's sweetness as well as a nice
complement to the beer’s mouth feel.
In the end, it is no surprise that the
monks who make one of the better Trappist beers in the world also make a cheese
that is not only fantastic on its own but also a perfect accompaniment to their
beer. Cheers!
Didn't like drinking beer...until Chimay Blue :-)
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