Chimay - Red (Bieres de Chimay)

Off to Belgium we go.

Chimay Red (or Premiere as it is sometimes known) is a Trappist beer in the dubbel style - Belgian heavy bodied strong brown ale.

The brewery is worthy and characterful - not only do they also make cheeses but the proceeds of sales are solely for monastery support and the good of community projects and local charities in the area. If you fancy a cheese/beer collision experience then I suggest trying to get hold of their "Chimay With Beer" which has a rind soaked in ale. Those monks know how to make a strong brew - the red weighs in at 7%abv, whilst it's senior blue brother a hefty 9%.

It pours a murky pool-hall brown with a high persistent head. The nose is fruity and figgy with a touch of cloves.

In the mouth the beer is ably fizzy and alive, yet full bodied and creamy too, lots of physics to go on. The sup is quite yeasty without being grungy, and has a mild stickiness.

Minimal fruit sweetness yields to a nice nutty mid section, and the tail note is a vibrant fusion of maltiness and bitter hops.

Extremely pleasant and drinkable, this is a Belgian treasure for those in search of full-bodied session ale.

8/10 Characterful and potent Trappist ale.

- The Broadside

Trappistes Rochefort 10

I know nothing about Belgian beers. The very helpful man in the fantastic Bitter Virtue in Southampton spoke with such passion that this was "the best Belgian beer" I felt compelled to believe him.

It snaps open with a big fizz, pours with good carbonation, revealing a rich dark porter almost black beer. The aroma is to die for, rich and deep, full of brown sugars, molasses and burnt caramel. But hidden within there is a light freshness, lifting out some beautiful grassy and floral aromas.

Words struggle to explain the intensity of the first sip, at 11%Abv it's clearly a big beer, but it has such intensity. It's like a double concentrated ESB, boiled down until its a sauce sweet and rich enough to be poured on a pudding. Melted dark muscavado sugar dominates the initial taste, but there are no roasty or chocolate stout notes despite the dark colour. The finish provides a gentle hop bittering, bringing a delicate freshness to the finish.

8/10 A beer richer than a billionaire. If you like your beers sweet, rich and strong this will rock your world.

Delirium Nocturnum (Brouwerij Huyghe)

I was a big fan of Delirium Tremens, and I do like a dark beer, so surely this one adds up?

Pours a rusty deep brown, with a big whiff of earth and iron. A thin webby head soon dissipates to nought. The nose is peppers, bananas, figs, all a bit bonkers just like it's lighter sister beer.

The initial taste for me is a little gruesome, its all the fun of the fair when perhaps you just want to visit the coconut shy. Chewy, with slight chocolate rumours - it's like Billy Smarts madcap picnic hamper viewed through a black stocking of treacle, a mildly cloying aftertaste that lingers but not unpleasantly.

It's 8.5%abv, creamy with it and with each sup it grew on me more. If you can surmount the carnival of zany tastes it evolves into a dark fruity cracker. Wisps of herbs and pepper dance down the glass to the end.

So, idiosyncratic beer again from Brouwerj Hughe, but it all adds up to a fine and formidable strong ale experience for the adventurous.

8/10 - A circus ring of fruity barminess, rich bold fun dark ale.

- The Broadside

Delirium Tremens (Brouwerij Huyghe)

Firstly, do click on the Huyghe website, the intro by MD Alain de Laet is a classic bit of webbery.

A potent and colourful little package in a stone-effect bottle, Delirium Tremens offers much potential. The label shows various trippy animal icons and there's no doubt the message is that this will KO the unwary. It was voted Best Beer in the World at the 1998 World Beer Championships in Chicago.

It's 8.5%ABV, and on cap release the air fills with notes of fruit, ripe bananas and apples. It pours a joyous pale straw colour.

The sip is a little yeasty (it uses 3 types) and a lance-like note of pineapple wanders through, although not overpoweringly so. Huyghe brewery offers quite a few fruit beers, so its easy to see where this affectation came from.

The killer for me is the spices loitering in the undergrowth. Very european and peppery, they scatter through with gay abandon as the sup grows old and warm the tongue as the vaguely bitter aftertaste rears up and dies away. It's bitter just to the point of counteracting the fruit taste and no further.

This is a strong summer party drink for the discerning. The hops themselves taste like no normal hops, and I was amazed at how drinkable such a strong beer can be.

Not best in the world for me, but exacting and classy.

8/10 - Beautifully presented summer Belgian classic.

- The Broadside

Duvel Belgian Golden Ale 8%Abv

Pours the colour of light golden sand. Delightfully delicate fresh aroma, bananas, cloves, caramel, honey. Very reminiscent of wheat beers.

It starts gently and unassuming on the taste buds, light sweetness, hints of bittering, then wham! What follows is an hammer blow to every taste bud in the mouth, a hundred different flavour notes at once that smash and echo into the distance, like dropped tray of glasses in a restaurant.

This punctuation of taste, a big yeast crunch, squeezing out fruit flavours, maybe grapefruit. Spicy notes, cinnamon, cloves, definitely pepper, which lingers on long into the finish, where it is joined by the hops. The hops, arrive on the scene like a band who’s support act have played the gig of their life. They are delicate, but not understated, leaving a pronounced bitterness lingering like the pianos being struck at the end of The Beatles “Day in the life”.

Each sip of this beer is like watching a car crash again and again, you try and piece together what’s happened, but even super slow motion can’t help you disassemble a Duvel.

9/10 An outstanding beer. The only possible way to understand this beer fully...is to have another one.