St. Bernardus Abt 12

Bottled at El Irlandés, Valparaiso
Pours a deep dark cloudy brown color with orange hues. Head is perfect, medium to big, cream colored. It lasts for long and leaves a film of 1 cm thick. Aroma shows dense malty layers with pleasant alcoholic nuances. Spicy touches come when it warms a little. Hazelnuts, nougat, caramel, dark honey, palm syrup, brown sugar and tons of molasses. Cognac, clove, christmas cookies. I could keep listing all day. Amazing. Flavor is sweet with nutty bitterness. Extremely intense, complex and layered tastes. Liquorish, whiskey, cognac, molasses, all kinds of nuts. Hints of belgian chocolate, ’dulce de leche’ and choclate covered orange peel. It finishes with orgasmic mousse texture and a touch of Kahlúa and Whiskey or Amarula Cream. Absolutely incredible. Dense, thick, creamy mouthfeel. Warming alcoholic punch. Medium carbonation. Complex and overwhelming aftertaste that lasts for hours. This is definitely a world-class beer worthy of all the praise it gets.

V - vibrant poofy head leaving lots of lace. dark dark brown color A - strong aroma of fruits and spice, malt T - dark fruits, spice, a tinge of alcohol, and a deep roastiness without being heavy. P - well balanced with a tingling/bitter sour feeling.

On tap @ Yard-House Irvine. Pours dark brown, deep reddish amber with small white head. Slight aroma of hops with powerful sense of spice and alcohol. Flavor of spice, pepper and sweet plums. Finishes with a slight ting of alcohol. Very enjoyable!

On tap @ Coles Buffalo NY. Pours a medium to darker brown. Aromas of sweet & dried sticky dark fruit. Plums, raisins, figs etc. Medium to lighter bodied but lots of complexity. Some caramelization sweetness & spiciness. Alcohol gives a slight notice towards the end. Remarkably smooth for a beer of its magnitude. Enjoyed this with a Westy 8 & Westy 12

The bottle exploded upon opening leaving me with only one half of the beer! Other than that this was a great experience. The aroma is huge, sweet and malty with a complex dark fruit, a mixture of plums raisins and figs. The flavour is big and moreish, estery, more dark fruit with plums becoming more obvious, and little caramel. The alcohol is well restrained and gives the beer a pleasant warmth. Full rounded body with a gorgeous lively carbonation. I can’t help comparing this to Rocherfort 10, my highest rated beer up until now, although I find Rocherfort has a more complex flavour, St. Bernadus wonderful aroma, coupled with its slightly bigger, tasty though perhaps less refined flavour makes this my new number one. Although I do think a side by side comparison is now called for.

My first quad. Pours dark brown with an off white head. Smells malty and fruity. No alcohol detected. Really great.

Full hop, spice and malty profile. Sweet malt profile balanced by a hop profile. Brown sugars balance the small hop profile. Raisins and dried fruits dominate this one. Pure complexity. SECOND ANALYSIS: Got one of these in the 12oz and its really dry. I like it, but not as sweet as it was before. Interesting.

I was really looking forward to this beer and it gracefully turned out even better than expected. There’s not much to criticize here, as it is strong in all categories. Sweet, perfumy aroma with a great complex flavor of maple, brown sugar, spoiled cream, wheat bread, all kinds of funky flavors end up in a soulful elixir. Booze is well hidden on the palate but hits you in the face, chest, breast, neck, and head areas moments thereafter. The remaining aspects of this beer are just too much for a novice like myself to describe at this point, but after all is said and done, it’s damn fuckin’ good. Easily in my top 5 thus far. Bravo, Saint Bernardus.