What are you thoughts about Chimay?

Costumers in general are far more willing to pay more for a quadruple than a pilsner. Most likely due to them comparing the cost of any pilsner to a pale lager.

As a brewer once told me, the cost for him making an RIS different only marginally from the money he spend making his pilsner. He could sell easily the RIS for a lot more money than the pilsner.

I suspect that the pricing has a lot to do with that.

 

The Tesco price might be because they are getting rid of it. The normal price in the UK is about £3.50 (or £3.80) or $5.12 ($5.56) for a 330ml bottle. In beer shops something like Sierra Nevada pale ale is around £3.00 a bottle. The American prices seem very good compared to here.

 

It's always hard to say but I feel the beers are not as good and 20 and 30 years ago. A change in fermenter design occurred along the way I understand, with the cylindrical conical type being used currently, maybe this explains it, I don't know. I find the yeast background quite harsh and the three beers taste rather similar to me despite the differences in style. One very experienced Chimay fan once told me the beers are drunk much too young, they need to be aged at least two years to soften the yeast background and bring out the malt and hop components more. This may be but I just haven't had the chance to drink any aged that long.

 

I discovered Chimay in the early 1980's, I used to buy it by the case (reference another thread here, beer good enough to drink is always worth buying by the case) for about $35 for a case of 12 big bottles. I haven't had it in a while though, in part because of the price but also because there is so much to choose from these days.

 

We have several older bottles of the Tripel sitting on the shelf where I work, is there any way to tell the date on theses? Would they have held up over the years? I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on one but have been hesitant to do so..

 

Chimay is one of the beers that got me into craft. It was sold at a higher end fish market nearby. Don't have it that often anymore as there are too many beers to try, but when I remember why I got into craft.