St. Bernardus Abt 12

Brewed by St. Bernard Brouwerij
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Watou, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass

Definitely one of the best beers in the world. Pours jet black (like westvleteren, blacker than rochefort) with a red rosey hue when held up to the light and a foamy white head which lingers longer than those on most Belgian strong ales. It smells, hmm what can I say, DELICIOUS! Dark sugar and dense alcohol smells with a hint of spice. Tastes as it smells, spicy carbonation on the front and middle of the palate, sugary sweet malt on the middle and at the back. Do yourself a favour - buy yourself a 750mL bottle and don’t share! Bliss...

BOTTLE. Spice, ginger, and dark fruit. Awesome beer. One of my top 3 quads.

Incredible beer! Smooth and strong at the same time! Normally I don’t like beers with a heavy alcohol percentage, but this one is a keeper!

brown, black, hazy, hay, cereal, roasty, medium sweetness, lightly sour, medium body, oily feel, lively,

Pours dark brown with a high head. Aroma belgian yeast, anis, some fruits an citrus. Somewhat raw feel as it’s a new bottle. Full body and high carbonation. Not Bad.

Dark woody brown with beige head. Sweet fruity nose. Amazing fruity malt flavour. Candy sugar. Frothy mouthfeel. Really delicious.

Being the first beer I’ve rated here, I’m glad it is this wonderful mixture! It’s not the first time I’ve had it and I should have written this on the first taste and am now half finished the bottle, but here we go anyway. The aroma is very mild for a beer of this alcohol content but quite fruity. I would say a banana smell as much as I’ve had in a beer. After quite a few sniffs looking for something else I smell a very light hint of citrus in it as well. Appearance is a nice red as you would expect from most ales. It heads on pour fairly frothy which lasts about 5 min or so. Taste is sweet but not overly at all. It’s sweetness is almost muted by the textures and aromas that accompany. Not much alcohol flavor for such a strong beer. The flavor improves with each sip and hangs afterward for a bit but certainly not too long. Palate on first pull I found quite average for an ale except it’s very smooth. Very full bodied and quite creamy as well, almost milky in texture if it weren’t for the soft carbonation. The finish matches the taste and hangs around smoothly and softly for a bit but not too long. I give this beer a f*cking awesome out of 10. I love it.

"Purchased as a St. Bernardus Sampler pack over the holidays. Poured into a Bernardus Chalice at around 50 Degrees F right out of my cellar. Label reads best before 08/09/16 A - Poured a very dark brown with a 4 finger head that was tan in color. The head subsided pretty slowly. The color has some amber tints on the edges but it’s a very deep brown ale just like Chimay blue label. S - Whoa. Yeah, nice breadiness with a lot of earthiness as well. Loving the vanilla notes with a bit of hazelnuts. The smell just screams Belgian Big beer Quad T - Oh wow. The vanilla and earthiness comes through strong. Nice Belgian yeast which is very mellow and not in your face. I’m getting a lot of raisins and malt. The alcohol isn’t in your face but you notice it. I get some figs as well. That’s good cause I love figs! M - Very full bodied beer with an immense mouthfell. Very carbonated, very in your face but perfect to just sit down and sip for a while. O - Yeah, this beer deserves its Beer Advocate rating. I’m a huge fan now. I only had the 375 and I didn’t keep in in my cellar longer than a month but I just couldn’t wait. This is a beer I’ll buy again in an instant. Very delicious and a very solid quad."