Unibroue Trois Pistoles (CAN)

Trois Pistoles is named after a town near Quebec that disappointingly means "three coins" not "three pistols." My 750 ml bottle was dated 10/01/10. This is the sort of beer which should age well (it's 9% and the yeast is left in the bottle), but it was hard not to uncork it sooner.

It looks very dark in the glass, but held to the light, it's clear and reddish. The aroma is awesome, and the taste is nearly as good. A dark, strong Belgian ale, it brings the expected fruits (plums, maybe berries) with some chocolate cake. It's actually lighter in body than I would have expected, though not too light. The finish is dry.

The brewer suggests pairing with game, wild fowl or pasta. I'm assuming they mean something like fettucine with a rich cream-based sauce, and not alio oglio. Either way, I like to drink beers such as this by themselves, and save more everyday brews for food pairings. To me, Trois Pistoles is superb, and can hold its own with a few Belgian Trappists.  

Unibroue Blanche de Chambly (CAN)

You would think that in Western New York we'd be able to find decent Canadian beer, but even my local beer mega-store -- the much lauded Beers of the World -- only sells Unibroue, Sleeman, Moosehead, Molson and Labbatt's. They have a bigger selection of Ukranian beer. I'm not sure why this is.

Blanche de Chambly (Chambly being a town near Quebec) is a "white ale on lees," or a Belgian-style witbier. The brewer's website lists several advantages for not filtering their beers, including rich flavor, thicker foam, good source a Vitamin B, and "competitive advantage over other brewers." It's a list with a little something for everyone.

The beer pours a lot like a hefeweizen, only without such vigorous swirling. It's an opaque straw color with a head that is hard to control. The aroma is of spices and citrus and coriander (which smells to me like spices and citrus). I like the body, which is medium-to-full with spritzy carbonation. The taste is mostly what you'd expect from a white beer: lemony sweet rather than bitter. It's a bit more tart than I'd expected, which may be what most differentiates it from others of the style.

This is a very fine witbier which maybe would have been better drunk in the summer. (My bottle date is the distant September 2008, which is another benefit of not filtering.) I doubt this is Unibroue's best offering, though it sells for $1 less than most of the rest of the line.