Chimay ale

[junkyard dawg]

A friend gave me a bottle of Chimay Cinq Cents.

to me, thats the best beer I've ever had.

I poured it into a glass and started the yeast up again with a little fermax and some quick mashed ground 2 row malt. It sat for 2 days and now this morning its bubbling strong. I've never started yeast from beer before...at least not from beer I bought. This one seemed like it would be worth keeping.

Anyhow, any of you guys know anything about Chimay?

[RedEar]

Edited, see below.

[zymos]

In what way would you consider it a lambic?
It is fermented from a specific,cultured yeast and no bacteria or "wild" yeasts...

[RedEar]

Well I'll be! Upon further reading I stand corected. Still, some damn fine beer. So, forget all they crap I wrote. I'll go delete it even.

[muckanic]

The yeast is a big producer of banana esters and clovey phenols (sort of like a subdued German wheat beer come to think of it). I think Wyeast's original Belgian abbey strain may be Chimay. Some folks don't like the banana and even those that do tend to ferment it coolish and with a vigorous starter.

[duds2u]

I first came across this beer in Amsterdam a few years ago. We tried several (read lots) of the "single", "double' and "triple'. Enjoyed all of them in one of the"brown bars" with a Pom that we happened to meet. Then we went on one of the funniest canal tours that you could imagine, the Pom, my wife and myself - all pissed.
Oh yes, I do recall that we were thirsty after the tour so we went and tried them all over again.

[bronzdragon]

Chimay Cinq Cents or commonly referred to as "Chimay White" because it has a white label, and their other two popular beers have red and blue labels ... is an Abbey Trippel.

A high alcohol Belgian style that retains a light body. I like brewing the Belgian styles once in awhile because they depart drastically from the typical German, British, Irish or American styles of beers. Their liberal use of sugar, keeps the alcohol high and the body low.

Anyway, I like all three of the Chimay beers and always look to find them on sale when I can. Otherwise they can be a bit pricey. Usually a holiday time purchase for me.

If you find good fresh bottles, the yeast can be harvested as you noted. It's worth noting here that the yeast you harvest out of the bottle is believed to be a finishing yeast and not the main brewer's yeast in the primary fermentation (by homebrewers.) I have not harvested this strain, but it is said that this finishing yeast will yeild a high gravity beer, but not necessarily the same flavor profile of Chimay.

Cheers

~bd~

[junkyard dawg]

Thanks for that.

I have a couple of ferments with the harvested yeast. They do not have much of the character of the original beer that I liked so much. There are too many variables for that to mean much... It does ferment out to 12% with no problems. good things are expected....anyhow...

[I-GOR]

You can buy a bevy of belgium and lambic yeasts from Wyeast.

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I've never tried their lambics before, always stuck to ale.
I would expect that dried yeast would be a bit more flaky at hitting the flavor profiles than the liquid suspended yeasts.

[BritishBartender]

I remember reading that a lot of Belgium brewerys use two yeasts. One for fermenting and the other for bottle conditioning.
This may be the reason for the differance in taste!!

BB

[rubber duck]

Its a realy good yeast i like to use it in oat wisky and rye beer it will go to 14% easy.