Abbey Grand Cru - New Belgium Brewing

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Abbey Grand Cru

- Lips of Faith

STORY

Before there was New Belgium Brewing, there was Abbey Ale. It was the first beer of home brewer and New Belgium co-founder, Jeff Lebesch. So the love brews deep for Abbey Grand Cru.

To date, Abbey Ale has garnered no less than 16 medals at the Great American Beer Festival 7 of those being Gold. Take that award-winning recipe, precisely increase the hops, malt and fermentation time, and the result is a Grand Cru worth collecting. And that s exactly what many of us at New Belgium, as well as a growing number of fans, have done.

By saving it for a few years, Abbey Grand Cru will continue to improve and age deliciously. Optimal storage is a cool (40-55°), dark place where the bottles can remain undisturbed. But lest we forget, it is a great beer and great beers deserve to be enjoyed. Best served at cellar temperature in a wide-mouthed glass. Toast to the monk s virtue and have a heavenly experience.

BEER FACTS

Birthdate: November, 1991

Body: Medium - Full

ABV: 9.5%

IBU: 20

Calories: 270

Hops: Willamette, Target, Liberty

Malts: Pale, Chocolate, Carapils, C-80, Munich

Yeast: House Belgian Yeast

Aroma: Notes of dried dark fruits -raisin, plum, date, grape fig and cherry. Some woody notes and lots of banana. Some gentle red wine notes.

Mouthfeel: Full mouthfeel, creamy and rounded but the additional alcohol gives it a nice spicy warm wine-like finish.

Flavor: Strong alcoholic warmth, yeasty bread and caramel, candied sugar and red wine. Hints of chocolate, dark fruits, and some dry oaky aged biscuit malt notes.

Visual: Deep mahogany with hints of cranberry red, creamy dense head with strong lacing

Food Pairings

White Chocolate Creme Brulee Scott Pajak, Chef de Cuisine, Lagasse's Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada print recipe White Chocolate Creme Brulee I paired this becasue the malt just complimented extremely well with the fattiness with white chocolate creme brulee and the homemade brown sugar shortbread cookie. The beer you get the cinnamon which plays off the cookie and richness of the creme brulee to achieve a great desert pairing.
Sweet Grass Dairy Chevre Molly Gunn and Nick Rutherford, The Porter Beer Bar, Atlanta, Georgia print recipe Sweet Grass Dairy Chevre Goat cheese is tricky to pair depending on it's acidity level, Sweet Grass Dairy (in Thomasville, GA) make their chevre incredibly fresh and young, which makes it easier on the palate, which means you can pair it with a big dark rich beer like the Abbey, which will stand up to the tang and richness of the goats milk.
Dessert Trio Vincent Clark, Chef and Owner of Food for Thought Catering recommends: print recipe Dessert Trio Three flavor experiences... Proscuitto wrapped date and kalmyrna fig stuffed with young goat cheese and wrapped in applewood smoked bacon Chimay cheese on a pool of aged balsamic syrup Dark chocolate truffle with bailieys infused bittersweet chocolate sauce I had some fun with this dessert sampler that I did for a beer dinner at New Belgium Brewing. The Abbey Grand Cru is a big ale with chocolate tones and wanted to play on that. So with this sampler I wanted a dark chocolate but also wanted to add some saltiness to the dish as well to pair nicely with the chocolate tones. So we used prosciutto & smoked bacon for our saltiness. The Chimay with the aged balsamic syrup was the finishing touch and the pleasant surprise of the dish as it was a creamy-acidic-sweet counterpart to the beer but blended very well with the chocolate on the plate as well.
General Cheese Ponderings Don Pieratt, Cheese Monger at Chez Cheese Gourmet Market in Larimer Square, Denver, Colorado, recommends: print recipe General Cheese Ponderings Can we say "Stump the Panel!"? That is ..... until we brought out the cheddars. Wisconsin smoked, Canadian aged white cheddar, and even an Irish cheddar done with a porter beer called Cahill Porter all worked out well. The hints of sweetness in the Grand Cru mixed wonderfully with the cheddars. We also put this beer up against an Australian blue cheese with very good results. Roaring 40's is a strong and smooth cow's milk blue which is spreadable at room temperature.
Roasted Vegetable Stew with Dumplings Jessica Langley, Sales and Beer Ranger Support here at New Belgium, recommends: print recipe Roasted Vegetable Stew with Dumplings Abbey Grand Cru is a huge, complex brew: it shares many characteristics with Abbey, but it is even larger in aroma, and more robust and warmer in the mouth than Abbey. Big creamy desserts (banana crème brulee, caramel nut cheesecake) would not be wrong with this brew. But I love pairing Abbey GC with equally complex savory dishes that both compliment and tame the brews' sweetness and alcohol warmth. One of my favorite Abbey Grand Cru pairings is roasted vegetable stew and dumplings liberally sprinkled with herbs, olive oil, and a feta or cotija cheese. It's a warming pair for cool weather - my ultimate comfort food! The natural sweetness of roasted carrots, sweet potatoes, and onions compliment Abbey Grand Cru nicely. At the same time, this beer is big enough to stand out against the flavors of herbs de province, thyme, rosemary, buttery dumplings, and strong olive oil. The crumbled cheese adds a delicate tart taste to the meal and ties it all together; I recommend an aged goat milk cotija if you can find it.