REVIEW 85: CHIMAY CINQ CENTS ("WHITE")

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Belgium

BREWERY:  Biéres de Chimay, S.A.

STYLE:  Tripel

ABV:  8.5%

PURCHASE:  Draught (10-oz.), $10.50

SERVING:  Chimay branded chalice. Less than half an inch of head from the tap on the first serving, but almost twice as much on Round 2. The keg change probably had something to do with it. Decent retention. As with the "Red," the head whittles down to a thin layer but never completely goes away.

APPEARANCE:  Like the Red, this is translucent, radiant, and visually stunning. It has a golden-orange tinted body with an off-white head. Very little lacing and no visible bubbling action, despite being served in the glass designed for just that.

BOUQUET:  Malty and with prominent accents of clove and coriander. Light citrus undertones.

PALATE:  Very light body for a beer of this strength. Carbonation is rather subtle unless held for a long time. Slightly sweet and juice-like entry. Then the malt factor takes off. Hops are at a minimum at this stage, while the citrus-malt dichotomy remains through the finish. Clove and coriander essences emerge in the aftertaste, and this is where a hop bitterness will surprise you at the very end. Deceptively strong; seems easy to get through the first couple of servings, but the third or fourth will suddenly pack much more of a wallop. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  As with the other Chimays, the Cinq Cents remains viable but ultimately overhyped when juxtaposed with other beers of its category. Other noted tripels from Belgium--in particular the St. Bernardus--as well as from this continent (e.g. La Fin du Monde), beat it rather handily. Which leads me to the following realization: I compared the wrong Chimay to Grant Fuhr last night! This one is Fuhr. The Premiére is more like Billy Smith. For the uninitiated, he was the goalie for the New York Islanders' dynasty that preceded Fuhr's Oilers, and he was the first NHL goaltender ever to be credited with scoring a goal, seven years before Ron Hextall.*

Like Fuhr, Smith is a Hall of Famer, mainly due to having been the goalie for a team that won several Stanley Cups in a short span. And like Fuhr, numerous bloggers, critics, and commentators have questioned his induction into the Hall, citing his clearly underwhelming statistics. Smith won one Vezina, like Fuhr. He was the starting netminder for four Stanley Cup winners, like Fuhr. Unlike Fuhr, however, he won almost 100 fewer games and never achieved significance on the international stage. 

Hence, I now rate Chimay "Red" as the Billy Smith of Belgians, and the "White" as Fuhr, since both remain very well above ordinary, but not truly elite, and I give the latter an oh-so-slight competitive edge. 



*Unlike Hextall, Smith didn't actually shoot the puck into the opposing net. Rather, in his case, the opposing team inadvertently scored on themselves, and Smith was credited for the goal due to being the last player on his team to touch the puck before it crossed the goal line. Watch it here:





GRADE:  B+