Top Shelf Thursday, March 2014: The Trappists

Another Top Shelf Thursday has come & gone, another flight of beers tasted.  For this month’s event, we turned to a family of beers apropos to the Lenten season, embodying both the worldly & the divine: the beers of the Trappist breweries.  It’s easy to fall into a reverent tone when writing about these beers, as both the means & the ends speak to beer’s transcendent potential.  Among brewers & drinkers, the Trappists are a revered brotherhood, creators of some of the most esteemed & imitated styles in the world.

The word “style” is used loosely here.  While many of the Trappist-produced beers share some common characteristics – top-fermenting, inclusion of Belgian candi sugar – there are no strict guidelines for flavor profile or recipe.  That said, although there are outliers, many Trappist brews bear a strong family resemblance: on the sweet side, with notes of fruit & spice, typically with subdued hops.  The majority skew dark, ranging from light chestnut to the color of molasses.

There are currently ten Trappist breweries in operation; due to varying distribution, we were able to sample the seven in our inventory.  Though the majority of Trappist breweries are in Belgium, we started with a beer from one of two Dutch producers, from the La Trappe line of Bierbrouwerij De Koningshoeven.  This was their Jubilaris XXV, brewed for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the installation of their abbot, Dom Bernardus.  It was a good introduction to the night, hitting notes of dark fruit & spice, while relatively restrained at 6% ABV.

We followed with a non-conformist among the Trappist club: Orval.  It’s relatively light, both in color & alcohol (6.2% ABV).  It’s dry-hopped, giving it a little more bitterness & a perfumy nose.  It also undergoes a secondary fermentation with brettanomyces, adding some leathery & subtly funky notes to the nose, as well as a dry, mild tartness to the taste.

Things veered back into more familiar territory with Chimay Premiere, the red-labelled dubbel from the world’s most recognized Trappist brewery.  One of the archetypal dubbels, the Red covered the bases with notes of raisin, brown sugar, & a dry finish.  And though it pushed the boundaries for ABV, the Achel 8° Bruin, from the youngest of the Belgian Trappists, also carried the familiar refrain, making for a good side-by-side comparison with the Chimay.

As mentioned before, the Trappists aren’t generally concerned with stylistic adherence, as illustrated by the line of Rochefort’s ales.  Their Trappistes Rochefort 8, coming in at 9.2%, seems to fall under the general category of Belgian strong dark, hitting again on the previously trodden ground of dark fruit & spice, but with a bright & lasting finish of molasses & caramel.  

Tripel has become a universally acknowledged style, though it was not always in its present pale, ester-heavy form.  Formerly, tripel was just a demarcation of strength, until the abbey at Westmalle fashioned its modern embodiment in the 1930s, giving it a lighter color with a slightly hoppy & boozy finish.  Westmalle’s Tripel remains an excellent standard-bearer to this day.

By this time, we were into the big boys.  Every abbey brewery has a crown jewel in its repertoire, sometimes called “grand cru”, “abbot ale”, or just indicated by a high number.  These are generally dark, strong, & again strike similar chords, with notes of dark fruit, spice, toffee, molasses, a notable alcohol character, maybe even a little cocoa or banana.  Many liken them to a port.  We revisited the Achel brewery for their Trappist Extra, &, while most agreed that there were superior examples, this hit all the right places.  Next came an offering from the newest of the breweries represented this evening: Gregorius, from the Austrian Stift Engelszell.  Those in attendance were generally impressed by the Gregorius, especially considering its makers’ relative novice status, having only begun brewing in 2012.  La Trappe Quadrupel elicited a lot of discussion about what defines a quadrupel, what distinguishes it from other Belgian strong dark ales.  Folks were content not finding a clear answer, as they sipped the 10% ale.  And we rounded off the evening with Trappistes Rochefort 10, the top of the Rochefort line, which did not disappoint.  Rochefort 10 is often found on unofficial lists of the top three abbey strong ales, sharing a place in the “Holy Trinity” with St. Bernardus Abt 12 & the coveted Westvleteren 12, for reasons very apparent to the crowd.

Speaking of Westvleteren, hopefully there will come a day when we can enjoy the fruits of their labors, along with the other two absent: Spencer Trappist Ale of Massachusetts, & Maria Toevlucht of the Netherlands.  As always, thanks to all who came out to share fellowship over some great beers.  There’s plenty more information out there on the history & practices of the Trappist breweries, well worth checking out.