Blanche de Chambly is a
white beer brewed by the
Québec brewery
Unibroue, distributed in 750 ml bottles and with a 5% alc./vol. (measured by Canadian standards).
The first things you notice when you see a bottle of Blanche de Chambly are its the size of the bottle and the cork - characteristic of Unibroue-brewed beers. Most beer, at least in Canada, tends to be in 341 ml bottles (or 335 ml cans), so seeing a bottle twice as big in the aisle of the local
beer parlour can be a bit of a shock. Further, there's the cork;
Unibroue lets its beer ferment in the bottle, rather than in a vat, so corks are essential.
In fact, the in-bottle fermentation is one of the things which makes Unibroue beers so distinctive; while Blanche de Chambly is only refermented once in the bottle,
Fin du Monde and
Maudite are double- and triple-fermented. As a result, they're somewhat more frothy than your average beer, and have a 'lighter' taste - it's tricky to describe beer when you're not a professional taster, but it definitely doesn't have the same heavy taste as, say,
Kokanee, the only other beer I have on hand at the moment. However, the refermentation process leaves a layer of yeast at the bottom of the bottle, which can be nuisome to the "empty the whole bottle" drinker. Further, it's a cloudy beer, which can be startling to a drinker used to seeing their fingers on the other side of the glass.
On the whole, I would recommend Blanche de Chambly to anyone who would happen to come across it; it's a change from the average beer, and not
terribly more expensive - $ 5.30 CDN before taxes at the local
government goody store.
Santé!