The Kolonel is back for another round with the fine brews of Unibroue. This weekend I took in what I would consider to be the “entry level” version of bottle-conditioned beers. Blanche de Chambly honors a colonial washer woman named Blanche who, according to legend, cleaned the cookware of the Chambly fur trappers in the early days of French Canada. Wait… no. Actually, it pretty much just means “White of Chambly,” and that is what it delivers: a wheat-based white beer from Chambly, which is the region of Quebec where Unibroue works their magic. I have dubbed this white beer the “entry level” choice because, believe it or not (believe it), this baby weighs in at a whopping… 5% ABV? Huh?? If it’s bottle refermented, meaning the alcohol content increases after bottling, what the hell ABV did it have before it got corked? 3.2?

So, of course, I was initially skeptical as I cracked ‘ol Blanche open (so to speak) and had a pour. Fortunately, being the good kolonel that I am, I looked at the instructions first, because I was fixin’ to serve this beer in my standard, one-each chalice glass, which I use for most of my tripels and the like. This one, however, is supposed to be served in a tall, narrow glass, which reminds me more of a hefeweiss. In any case, she pours smooth, with a lively golden color, a head of dense, tiny bubbles, and modest opacity. Bouquet is the yeasty, bready, yummy scent typical to the variety. In terms of flavor, the reduced alcohol content really doesn’t detract from the taste, which is quite similar to my previously-reviewed Don de Dieu, but with perhaps slightly less complexity. Actually quite similar to Hoegarden, another personal favorite which I will be loading up on as soon as I can find someone around here who carries it.

Two bits of good news: you won’t get as tow’ up if you put down a full 750ml bottle of Chambly as you would with a 9.0% beer (simple math my friends… simple math). And if you’re really in the mood to be a… um… lightweight (substitute your own word there), this also comes in the 330ml size. The not-so-great news is that it costs exactly the same as most of the other Unibroue varieties, so if you’re trying to equate price with inebriating potential, you’re in the wrong place. Of course, if you’re looking to the Kolonel’s selections for economic choices, I suggest you move on to General German and his recycled-petroleum-based malt liquor. Solid.