Brewery: Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Remy
Location: Rochefort, Belgium
ABV: 9.2%
Version: Bottled
Source: Courtesy of BeerMerchants.com

The second bottle of Belgian from last Friday’s continental taster session was once again very kindly provided by Phil at www.beermerchants.com (cheers again, Phil!) and this one went a long way towards convincing me that I really have been missing out on some rather excellent Belgian brews. Trappistes Rochefort 8 is one of a range of three beers brewed in peace, solitude and seclusion by the Cistercian monks of the Abbaye Saint-Remy in Rochefort, Belgium, where the brewing brothers have been perfecting their art since 1595. And it shows.

Rochefort 8 pours a wonderfully thick, opaque, dark amber colour and has a hugely powerful, syrupy, citrusy, orange and grapefruit nose. First flavour impressions are of sweet, stewed fruit – possibly figs-in-syrup – and cough drops, giving the beer a faint but not at all unpleasant herbal tang. The overall experience is rich, warming and immensely satisfying. At a whopping 9.2% ABV (although still a relative lightweight alongside it’s 11.3% Rochefort 10 sibling) it’s definitely one to sip and savour, but frankly I really wasn’t about to rush this one anyway. Wonderful flavours, incredible texture; I was happy to make this one glass last as long as I could. Fantastic stuff.

I’m already compiling a mental check-list for a mixed-case order to BeerMerchants.com (once I’ve put a slightly more significant dent in the currently full-to-capacity beer cupboard) and this one is definitely high on the list, along with the Rochefort 10.

As for my Belgian beer odyssey, well, I’m planning on continuing it this evening with another couple from Phil, quite possibly alongside the results of a raid on Tesco’s World Beer section that I carried out last weekend. But I think it’s safe to say that I’m steadily becoming a convert…