Rochefort Trappistes 8

Brewed by Brasserie Rochefort
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Rochefort, Belgium

This chestnut brown beer has a thick white head and heavy lacing. The nose is amazingly rich with charred oak, spiced apples, cinnamon, chocolate and a touch of raisin. The palate is dense with sweet chocolate covered raisins and dry wood-smoked barley malt. THe finish is a touch lack lustre given the amazing nose and palate, but it is creamy and rich with an afterthought of lemon meringue.

my first belgian strong ale. pours dark brown with a huge off white head. smells like plums, alcohol, and malty. taste is sweet with a chocolate like/ plum flavor. this reminds me somewhat of hair of the dog adam in the aspect of the plums.. but it certianly is nothing close. this is a great beer. sampled around 60 degrees. a nice sweet flavor to this as well. i like this beer. perhaps the belgian beer just doesnt do it for me as much as the american super hoppy beers do.

update: having drank this many times since my original rating, i feel that I rated it a bit low the first time around. This stuff is great, probably one of the best belgian strong ales on the planet. Amazing nose and body, great great beer, and a staple at my house for sure.

Aroma: raisins and sweet malt with a hint of spiritousness. Appearance: dark reddy brown and hazy with a cappacino fluffy head that leaves great sheet solid lacing. Flavour: awesome vanilla, fruity malt, some almost pecan nut flavours (very light.) Palate: great medium mouthfeel with a light spiritous and malty aftertaste. Overall an incredibly full flavoured beer.

I hadn’t had a beer in a few days when I cracked this one open for dinner this evening (I had some other stuff for dinner too-- less important stuff). I was blown away. Every now and again you’ll have a beer, the first sip of which will just make you stop and think, ’hey, this is why I drink beer.’ This was certainly one of those beers. The complexity of flavor meshed perfectly with the beer’s mouthfeel, and appearance. I tasted everything from plum and cherry to some chocolate and nuttiness, even to some candy sweetness (I think this was probably induced by the higher alcohol content). The beer is a fantastic nut brown color, with a head that lasts to the very end. The beer has a pleasant, tart finish which mellows as the beer warms. The carbonation is understated, and the alcohol is what really dominates the palate (not in a bad way though). Belgian beer is not beer to be pounded day in and day out like folks drink Pabst or even some of the stronger american ales. In fact, I’d say, these stronger Belgians are MUCH better if you only have one every month or so. It makes you appreciate the flavor (which is strong and ultra-complex) a lot more than you would otherwise. In other words, it’s great beer, but I’ll probably only drink one bottle of belgian strong ale for every ten or fifteen bottles of other beers. That’s all it takes.

Gorgeous cloudy, pale deep walnut in color with a plum-like purple tone, nice. If it weren't for a fast fading head it would recieve a 5 for sure, but it crumpled away pretty darn quick, it looked impressive for about 2 seconds, big, fluffy, dark ivory in color, leaves a skim and lace is in stringy patches that doesn't last either. Aroma is quite complex of dark fruits and has a quality close to a dark wine, very rich & lush, alcohol is lightly present, I get mostly plum and figs, with notes mixing with raisins, banana, with a nice caramel candied sweetness of yummy malts with a bit of nuttyness in there as well, excellent subtlities in this nose. Taste is super smooth and silky, a nice creamy sensation comes through right away, flows right in and starts laying down complex malts of caramel sweetness, toffee, and nuts, with a huge rich fruityness mixing in of banana bread, figs, raisins, and nice little light kick of spice hinting in a dark mandorine orange peel or similar to some kind of citrus peel, cloves maybe too? The alcohol makes a slight hindering towards the end. But especially after you get about half way through, head swimmingly goodness, ooooh yeah. One nice complex and subtle brew, amazing to think this is beer. Very silky smooth feel, close to full, solid creamyness the whole way through. A nice mellowing pace and aged appeal to its character. Quite a nice Belgian that stands the test of time....in a bottle.

Perfect looking beer, just like its bigger brother. This beer has an aroma unlike any beer I’ve ever encountered. Incredibly fresh cookie or gingerbread dough, with loads of spices (definitely allspice and cinnamon but a few others I couldn’t quite pick out), orange peel and whatever they use to spice Hahn Witbier and Emerson’s Taieri George. There’s jasmine and other floral, perfumey stuff in the background. More fresh doughy flavours, though it is very light and lean in the mouth. Loads of spice flavours coming from all directions, fresh but light maltiness, light bitterness and alcohol with a touch of chocolate in the finish but it sure doesn’t seem like it’s 9%. I found it a touch too fizzy early on and whilst it was really good, it was perhaps a touch too light on malt flavours to be my ultimate Belgian. Onya beer_ledgend!
Re-rate: Wow - when you have this stuff fresh it’s just like as described above only way fresher and better. I like it better than the 10 for its (relative) drinkability. Moving up!

Bottle. Color is a deep mahogany with good sized head. Streams of carbonation from the bottom of the glass. Looks amazing. The aroma is rich with fig, raison, malt, berries and a hint of toffee. Finishes nice and dry. As is warmed and the carbonation seemed less harsh I liked it even more..

The 8 is a little more youthful tastig then the 10, a little less dusty attic in it but this also comes with a little less complexity. Hard to say which one I like best as they are both outstanding.