Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week:" Brewery Ommegang Abbey Ale

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Aug 20, 2008 6:00PM

We're on record stating Unibroue to be the best brewery in North America, for their amazing recreations of Belgian-style ales. There are a few other breweries of note that pray to the Belgian shrine. One of them is Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY. Oh, God, oh, God the poetic we could wax about their Hennepin, Three Philosophers or Rare Vos brews! Then we went through previous posts and realized that we've never featured an Ommegang beer.

Today, we remedy that. Ommegang's first appearance in the "BotW" canon is a selection that stunned even us upon tasting. Ommegang's Abbey Ale is a dubbel, the first beer the brewery produced. Abbey ales are trappist-style ales not made in a monastery. Dubbels are strong, bottle-conditioned brown ales with a smooth sweet flavor imparted largely from roasted malts.

Ommegang Abbey ale is rich in color, scent and flavor. We couldn't contain a smile drinking a bomber of this at Hopleaf ($12). We later purchased a bottle at Lush Wine and Spirits' University Village location for half the price. It's one of the most beautiful beers we've photographed. Deep brown with a mocha-colored head, it's also rich in esters on the nose, with sweet spices (cloves, anise), dark fruits and toffee coating your mouth. Bottle conditioning gives Ommegang's Abbey Ale a wonderful mouthfeel. This works well with grilled lamb and vegetables. Actually, Abbey Ale would work great with lamb, pork or duck.

We hope it doesn't take another two years to feature another Ommegang beer. For those of you who love their beers, rejoice in today's long-overdue selection of Ommegang Abbey Ale as
Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week."