Tasting Notes: Abbaye St-Remy Trappistes Rochefort 8
Brewery: Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy
Location: Rochefort, Belgium
ABV: 9.2%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of BeerMerchants.com
The second bottle of Belgian from last Friday's continental taster session was once again very kindly provided by Phil at www.beermerchants.com (cheers again, Phil!) and this one went a long way towards convincing me that I really have been missing out on some rather excellent Belgian brews. Trappistes Rochefort 8 is one of a range of three beers brewed in peace, solitude and seclusion by the Cistercian monks of the Abbaye Saint-Remy in Rochefort, Belgium, where the brewing brothers have been perfecting their art since 1595. And it shows.
Rochefort 8 pours a wonderfully thick, opaque, dark amber colour and has a hugely powerful, syrupy, citrusy, orange and grapefruit nose. First flavour impressions are of sweet, stewed fruit - possibly figs-in-syrup - and cough drops, giving the beer a faint but not at all unpleasant herbal tang. The overall experience is rich, warming and immensely satisfying. At a whopping 9.2% ABV (although still a relative lightweight alongside it's 11.3% Rochefort 10 sibling) it's definitely one to sip and savour, but frankly I really wasn't about to rush this one anyway. Wonderful flavours, incredible texture; I was happy to make this one glass last as long as I could. Fantastic stuff.
I'm already compiling a mental check-list for a mixed-case order to BeerMerchants.com (once I've put a slightly more significant dent in the currently full-to-capacity beer cupboard) and this one is definitely high on the list, along with the Rochefort 10.
As for my Belgian beer odyssey, well, I'm planning on continuing it this evening with another couple from Phil, quite possibly alongside the results of a raid on Tesco's World Beer section that I carried out last weekend. But I think it's safe to say that I'm steadily becoming a convert...
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About time! Belgian beers are the nectar of the gods, my friend. If anyone ever put a gun to my head and told me that I could henceforth only drink beer from a single country and I had to choose, there and then, which one, I'd have answered 'Belgium' before he even finished speaking. They have lagers, wheat beers, fruit beers, dark beers, red beers, blonde beers, strong beers . . .
Mmmmm. . . Belgian beer . . .
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Howdo other Darren - With a sales pitch like that, you should work in Belgian Beer Marketing, mate :)
I had a couple more on Friday, with mixed results. I think I'm being won around, but then I still haven't found anything that really competes with a good, interesting pint of strong stout... maybe one day though. Sounds like an excuse to keep doing the research in the meantime.
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I had one of these on Sunday, at the Pembury Tavern in Hackney. Went very nicely with banana and toffee pancakes. Reminds me of dairy milk, with No. 10 as Bourneville.
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I finally got round to trying this the other week, along with the 6 and 10 which I must write up to compare. The 8 has a warm fruity flavour, dried fruit, pears, raisins, and picked up on your figs reference (or possibly prunes). Just enough brown sugar added to sweeten things up without being overpowering. Very nice indeed.
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