Chambly Noire
Rating: 5 out of 10
This is a Unibroue brew, which should immediately tell you that it is a top tier beer. I've never seen this one before and picked up this and another "new to me" Unibroue on a recent trip to Total Wine. It's a 6.2% ABV and the bottle reads "Dark Ale on Lees." Unsure what this meant I looked up lees and found it is the sediment from fermentation, consisting of dead yeast, fruit debris and the like. This definition suited me better than a dark ale on top of an onion.
It is bottle refermented and it's a foamer - it foamed right out of the bottle upon opening. The pour is a dark dark brown (near black) that produces a decent tan head that is rather foamy and dissipates relatively quickly. The aroma is a nice, deep, rich aroma of roasted malts and coffee. All Unibroue beers have a very inviting aroma. Come to think of it I can't think of many beers with bad aromas. Hmmm... The taste is good - hints of chocolate, dark fruits, roasted malts and traces of oak. It's smooth, though not terribly complex. The mouthfeel is good and it has almost no aftertaste at all.
Overall it's just a bit too plain. It's not great. It's not unique. It's not a beautiful snowflake. Drinkable? Yes. Repeatable? Yes. Memorable? No. This beer has to be judged a little bit against Unibroue's own high standards it has set for itself and it just doesn't live up to the reputation. The good news? There's like 15 other Unibroues for you to try.
By John on
October 2, 2007 @ 7 PM with 0 Comments
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