Monks, Abbeys and Chimay

Before we get into business, Friendly Package would like to thank all of the Ball State students that voted for us for “Best Liquor Store On Campus” through Ball State's Daily News. For those of you paying attention, that's two years in a row.

Here at Friendly Package we’re doing our best to get the best beer we can, and beer that you want. Wherever you are in the world come here to FriendlyPackage.com, click on contact us and we’ll do our best to have the beer you’re looking for when you come home. Even if you’re down the block, get ahold of us, or come in and talk to one of our clerks and we’ll do our best to get the beer you’re looking for.

Let’s take a trip across the pond, a swim across the English Channel and stroll into a Trappist Monastery called Scourmont Abbey where Chimay is brewed. Ready to hang out with some Monks?

Chimay

History lesson… Beer lesson… Beestory Lesson! (See what I did there?) Chimay is brewed by Trappist Monks dating back to 1862. Only eight breweries in the world are contained within Trappist Abbeys while only seven of the breweries in the Trappist abbeys are in Belgium. The lone Trappist Brewery not in Belgium is Mariawald Abbey over in Germany. Anyway, Trappist Breweries brew beer only to sustain their Abbey and anything after that is distributed to charities for community development around the area.

We’ve already been briefly introduced to two Trappist Abbeys, Mariawald and Chimay, but there’s six others. Other than the Chimay brews, Rochfort, La Trappe, Orval and Westmalle are Trappist brews that you can find at Friendly Package. Mariawald and Achel we are not able to get. Lastly, Westvleteren no one in the states can get.

Let’s get off topic real fast. Fun fact time: Westvleteren was founded in 1838 and since has been internationally known for its taste, quality and rarity. If you want to experience Westvleteren you have to go to the Abbey, but not before you call their “Beer phone” because walk-ups are not welcome. Last I’ve heard availability is limited to one 24-bottle case, per license plate, per 60 days. Westvleteren is bottled with no labels, and with all of the legal info printed on the cap. You can sometimes find bottles for sale on eBay, or from a friend, but the Monks hate that… Do you really want to piss off a Trappist Monk? I’m pretty sure they have a direct line to god, so I’m not going to test them.

Alright, let’s get back to Chimay… How’d we get off track anyway?

Chimay brews three different beers that are readily available at the best liquor store on campus, Friendly Package Liquors.

Chimay Premiere

Premiere was the first beer the Trappist Monks brewed in the Scourmont Abbey. It’s a dubbel that clocks in at a nice 7% abv, and is an easy drink. It’ll pour out a red/brown, rusty-ish color with a creamy head leaving a nice lace on the goblet. A fruity, maybe apricot nose with a smooth fruit taste. At the end you’ll catch a touch of bitterness, while your mouth screams for more.

Chimay Cinq Cents

Never had a triple? Give this one a shot. Cinq Cents first brewed in 1966 with an abv of 8%. This trip pours out a nice gold color, and smells of musky grapes with some raisons and malty-ness. You wouldn’t necessarily realize it by the smell, but Cinq Cents is fresh hopped, and while you get a hint of that at the end, you get a lot more sweet fruit.

Chimay Grand Reserve

This is where it’s at. Chimay Grand Reserve first brewed in 1948 as their Christmas beer. For the cold weather they made sure to give you a bit of warmness with a 9% abv. After the pour you get a floral aroma mixed with fresh Belgian yeast, clove and dark fruit is present. It feels light in your mouth, with a lot of carbonation. Grand Reserve gives off a mild banana flavor with an alcohol presence, there’s a nice malt flavor with a bit of spicy-ness mixed in that gives away to more alcohol at the end pairing with a dry finish.

All three Chimays come in a corked and caged 750 ml bottle for $12.77, $13.49 and $14.77 respectively, however if you’re looking to try them, all three 11.2 oz bottles are $5.99. If you’re going to grab a bottle of Chimay from us, you should probably pick up a Chimay Goblet for $2.99. It’s not completely necessary, any glass will work, but the Goblet is made by Chimay and if you use it, you’ll taste exactly what the Monks were intending.

Lastly to close out this bomb of knowledge on Chimay, let’s have a quick talk about temperatures. Most people think that drinking a beer ice cold is the way to go, but with any craft beer a warmer temperature is necessary. If a beer is ice cold, you lose subtle flavor notes that you would pick up if not for the numbingly coldness in your mouth.

Premiere should be served 50-54 degrees

Cinq Cents should be served 42-46 degrees

Grand Reserve should be served 50-54 degrees

When you grab a beer from our cooler, I would recommend you let them sit out for a little bit, 10 minutes for Cinq Cents, maybe 20 for Premiere and Grand Reserve. Personally, I’ll take a taste and then let it warm up and see if I can find any differences. Wrap your hands around the Chimay goblet, and slowly drink. Towards the second half you’ll find complexities that you didn’t realize were there. Or you can jam a thermometer in your glass, wait for the correct temperature and start drinking. Either way you’re in for a treat.

American Craft Beer Week Pt.4

Before we get into business, Friendly Package would like to thank all of the Ball State students that voted for us for “Best Liquor Store On Campus” through Ball State's Daily News. For those of you paying attention, that's two years in a row.

Here at Friendly Package we’re doing our best to get the best beer we can, and beer that you want. Wherever you are in the world come here to FriendlyPackage.com, click on contact us and we’ll do our best to have the beer you’re looking for when you come home. Even if you’re down the block, get ahold of us, or come in and talk to one of our clerks and we’ll do our best to get the beer you’re looking for.

This Week is American Craft Beer Week

It’s Friday, and that means it’s our fourth installment ofthe American Craft Beer Week reviews. Today our featured breweries are Stone Brewing and Indiana’s own Three Floyds. Although Stone has a lot of good beers tochoose from, I don’t care. I’m a Three Floyds fanboy, I’ll admit it. I’ve spentmore than my fair share of money at their establishment, had at least 50 oftheir beers, have a bunch of other merchandise. With this being said, of courseI’m going to review a Three Floyds beer, but which one?

Well, first I thought about reviewing Zombie Dust, BallerStout or Darklord, but you can’t get a bottle of any of those at our store, so what’s the point? Instead I’ve decided to review this month’s bomber, Blackheart.

Three Floyds Blackheart

The old label was pretty rad.

Blackheart is an English style IPA, but what makes it anEnglish style IPA? Does it mean that it’s more true to the style? Not sure, butwhat I do know is that it’s made with all English ingredients, English yeastand aged on oak. Sounds fun, right? Right, and it’s pretty good too.

Once poured Blackheart comes out a red-orange color with abig frothy head. You get thecitrus/floral smells from the hops, a sweet and hoppy smell. You also get a bitof the oak out of it also. Upfront you get the IPA-ness out of it, very similarto the nose, hoppy up front, sweet, citrus, cruises along and the oak comes inat the end piggybacking almost. The aftertaste still has the hoppinesslingering, and you get sweetness, almost vanilla (?) maybe from the oak. A nicemedium body, you get a little booze kick, but not as much as you’d expect from9%.

Give this one a shot, it’s not one of those 3F’s brewseveryone talks about, but it’s solid to say the least.

American Craft Beer Week Pt.3

Before we get into business, Friendly Package would like to thank all of the Ball State students that voted for us for “Best Liquor Store On Campus” through Ball State's Daily News. For those of you paying attention, that's two years in a row. 

This week is American Craft Beer Week

Today, is our third installment of American Craft Beer Week, and once again, time to step out of your box. Today’s featured breweries are (Jacob) Leinenkugel Brewing Company and Founder’s Brewing Company.  Leinenkugel have a handful of good beers, especially for the hot weather. If you’re looking for lemonade in your beer check out Summer Shandy, fruity pebbles check out Sunset Wheat, want some berries? Berry Weiss. You’re a big Honey fan? Honey Weiss.

The aforementioned beers are good and fine, but Founder’s Brewing Company brews serious beers. Their Centennial IPA is the standard for IPAs, their Porter (Like I’ve previously said) is the best in our cooler, their Pale is solid, and that’s not even getting into their seasonal bottles. Enough of how awesome all their beers are, time to tell you about Red’s Rye PA.

The good stuff.

Founders Red’s Rye PA

Quick backstory on this: For the longest time I avoided this beer because of my previous experience with rye beer. I’ve had a few of them and didn’t really dig the taste. I wasn’t sure exactly what I didn’t like, but the fact that rye was in it, I assumed it was the culprit. I’ve never really had an experience with rye before beer, so it was a new experience overall. On top of my bad experience with rye beers, I assumed that it was going to be similar to a red or an amber beer, which is also not up my alley. After talking to a customer, they assured me Red’s Rye PA was the way to go if I’m looking to figure out what a good RIPA tastes like, and boy was he right.

There's Red, hidden outside of their offices

Red’s Rye PA is brewed with four different Belgian malts, and Amarillo hops. It pours red with a grapefruit nose stinking up the room from the Amarillo hops. Other than the floral and grapefruit, some caramel malty-ness comes through. This is what a Rye PA should taste like, hop bitterness, malt and rye come through nicely with a medium body. My words can’t do this beer justice, just go grab one, or a full sixer and get a dollar off.

Enjoy.

American Craft Beer Week Pt 2

Before we get into business, Friendly Package would like to thank all of the Ball State students that voted for us for “Best Liquor Store On Campus” through Ball State's Daily News. For those of you paying attention, that's two years in a row. 

This week is American Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week continues, so time to try something new. Today’s two featured breweries are Boulevard Brewery and North Coast Brewery. Both companies have a lot of great beer to offer so this was a hard choice to pick what to review. Boulevard has some killers like Tank 7, Double Wide, Two Jokers and Rye on Rye (located on our warm shelf), but North Coast is one of my favorite breweries so I gotsta show them some love.

The grandaddy of them all

With the amount of North Coast brews we have at our disposal, it was a little taxing to figure out which to review. Old Stock Ale, Old Rasputin, Brother Thelonious, PranQster all being good choices, but these are the more popular of the beers. I’ve thought about reviewing Old Stock Ostuchi, Grand Cru or the lovely Old Stock Cellar Reserve, but I decided we’re going to look at Le Merle.

North Coast Brewing Company’s Le Merle

Le Merle is a saison/farmhouse ale made with a Belgian yeast strain. It pours a pale, “straw” color, yellowish orange with a big head that hangs around only for a second. Right away you can smell fresh, tangy fruits, some citrus and flowery smells. Le Merle has a light lemon taste, very crisp and fresh. The Belgian yeast gives some extra fruity characteristics, and carbonation is good. Overall I love this beer, one of my favorite saisons in our cooler right now, just make sure to drink this first. 

Michael Jackson says about Le Merle “More than a serious beer – it is outstanding….Dizzying, appetizing, refreshing.” This is not a quote from the “King of Pop” but “The Beer Hunter”.

American Craft Beer Week Pt. 1

Before we get into business, Friendly Package would like to thank all of the Ball State students that voted for us for “Best Liquor Store On Campus” through Ball State's Daily News. For those of you paying attention, that's two years in a row. 

This week is American Craft Beer Week, cue the beer-angels!

So Magical.

We’re going to celebrate this glorious week by giving a dollar off a six-pack or 22oz from selected breweries each day. Also, everyday this week I’ll review one of the beers from the featured breweries and I’ll do my best to get them up early in the day, so you (The drinker) has a recommendation for a beer you may not have tried otherwise.

Monday’s two breweries were Bell’s Brewery and Goose Island Brewery, but since I didn’t think about this until Monday night, I’m not going to write about them. Truthfully, anything you get from either brewery is solid and if you’re lucky enough to have held back a Bell’s Hopslam, or Goose Island Bourbon County Stout or the mouthwatering Ramble Rye (thank god she hasn't figure out how to use the bottle opener yet) what better time to pop it open than American Craft Beer Week?

Tuesday’s two breweries are Colorado’s own Boulder Beer Company and New Belgium Brewery. Although, Boulder Beer Company has many great beers in our door right now, I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about the following beer:

New Belgium’s Cocoa Mole

Made with 3 types of peppers, cinnamon and cocoa, this ale was a pleasure to drink. Cocoa Mole pours a dark brown color with the smell of cinnamon, cocoa and a little heat wafting from the glass. Right when you pour this you know you’ll be in for a wild ride. As it hits your lips you get a taste of chocolate (or cocoa I guess) and then a little cinnamon. The peppers kick in subtly, but more chocolate and cinnamon mask the heat. At the end, the heat lingers in the back of your throat as a bead of sweat rolls down your brow (at least for me). I’m not a big heat/pepper fan, I’m actually the opposite, I don’t do hot foods, but even I want, maybe  need more. Too good. To top everything off, at 9%, you get no booze on the after-taste.

Another great brew from New Belgium’s Lips of Faith Series, if I was smart I’d delete this whole post and let Cocoa Mole be one of those hidden gems in our cooler, but it’s just too good not to share.

Damn my humanitarianism. Come back tomorrow as we continue the American Craft Beer Week reviews. 

Heads Up!

As you may, or may not know, I love me some sours. With that being said, I just want to give everyone a heads up that on Wednesday (1.25.12) Upland will be taking reservations for their sour, Gilgamesh. More info can be found here.

Although I was at the Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer I didn't get a chance to try it, but for it to come in second for best in show there means it was good. The fest had 170 beers (if I remember correctly) and all that I had a chance to try were very good. If you're into sours make sure to check it out and support Muncie's own Caleb Staton.

See ya at Winterfest.