Trappistes Rochefort 6 - Abbaye St-Remy (Belgium) 7.5%

 Trappistes Rochefort 6 - Abbaye St-Remy (Belgium) 7.5%

Big, frothy but very quickly fading head (more like a soda), which is a little unexpected.

A cloudy, deep gold and amber colour in a glass. A pleasant herbal, yeasty aroma; sweet, roasty and malty too. A delicious, rounded malt flavour; lots of biscuit and honey. Very nutty with only mild herbal tones, a little apricot and something like green grape raisins; just a little bit of hops too. The alcohol comes through a little but all the flavours work really nicely together. This is a sweet little Trappist number but also more similar to mainstream ales than other Trappist beers and its stronger brethren Trappistes Rochefort 8 and Trappistes Rochefort 10.

Trappistes Rochefort 8 - Abbaye St-Remy (Belgium) 9.2%

 Trappistes Rochefort 8 - Abbaye St-Remy (Belgium) 9.2%

A dark, but not opaque, reddish brown colour in a glass. Sweet, toasty, honey and nectar filled, slightly herbal aroma; a little roasty and very appetizing.

Richly malty taste with touches of barley candy but very sweet with an interesting spicy herbal quality; strong tones of dried dark fruit (prunes and raisins). Some faint milk chocolate but mostly dark fruit and herbal yeasty flavours - typically Belgian Abbey beer and delightful. This Trappist ale has a certain vegetal, herbal quality that is appealing and though it is different from other styles of beers it is not entirely unique amongst Trappist beers and reminds me a little of a young Orval (I typically try to age an Orval a year before drinking it). Quite a bit of sediment that seems determined to remain at the bottom of the bottle: not much of it ends up in your glass without a swirl or two. From past experience more than a little of the sediment can make this type of beer more yeasty than ideal/more yeasty than the brewmaster (brewmonk?) intended.

Rochefort 8 reminds me a bit of an herbal liquore except with a few more dark fruit flavours. Very nice, as you'd expect from a Trappist beer, and, like all Trappist ales, something every beer geek and aspiring beer geek must try along with Rochefort 6 and Rochefort 10.

Trappistes Rochefort 10 - Abbaye St-Remy (Belgium) 11.3%

 Trappistes Rochefort 10 - Abbaye St-Remy (Belgium) 11.3%

Dark cherry and oak aromas. Touches of caramelized sugars and just a touch of alcohol. The taste is very sweet, a bit of high alcohol, lots of chocolate, some light and smooth molasses flavours and a touch of hops coming through with light wooden tones - faintly cedar. It tastes like a gourmet, rum soaked milk chocolate cake. At first all you taste is the sweetness followed quickly by alcohol and definition to the sweetness: molasses, milk chocolate. Then comes bitterness, some wood tones and finally a long sugary and roasty, baked finish like brownies with a continued alcohol hum that fades slowly and compelling you to take another sip. This one is awesome. Opaque brown with an red or amber hue and well carbonated with a substantial amount of dark sediment on the bottom of the bottle.