Wired Cola

Update: Red, darnit. This review previously said I was drinking Chimay Blue, but in fact I was drinking and reviewing Chimay Red. I am such a doofus.
And for some reason, I had another beer tonight after a hard evening of tech support. I went for the Chimay Red, an honest-to-goodness Trappist beer. It's the, er, red-labeled beer in the middle.No bonus points for the plain but classic label, zillions of bonus points for being a for-real Trappist ale (unlike the Karmeliet, which is merely in-the-Carmelite-style, as it were) made by real monks.
And truly, this is God's own beer. I had it a little too cold (the instructions call for a balmy 10-12 C), but it's still lovely and kind and happy and an easy 3/5. If I was giving half-marks, this would get 3.5. If I didn't find it complex or novel enough, I suspect the problem is with me. It's good, smooth, beer, in that same mysterious way as Unibroue: it's lovely and drinks easily, and only later do you realize you've had the ale equivalent of a double. Not a literal double-fermentation, but it's a strong beer.

The history of the abbey is interesting, too. Scourmont is a relatively young monastery, founded in 1850. The beer itself, as best as I can figure, a relatively new recipe too, dating to the 1940s, though it appears they've been making beer of one kind or another since their formation.