Westvleteren 12 (XII)

Brewed by Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Westvleteren, Belgium

Serve in Trappist glass

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

Bottle in Bruges. Huge malty beer with raisins, grape, berries. Every sip is an experience. Warming. Extremely complex. I’m more of an IPA drinker, but this is as good as it gets.

My favourite beer (so far), I bought into the hype and can’t say I was disappointed. I really love everything about this beer--it locks into all of my personal favourite attributes of a strong beer. It’s malty but with a complex aroma and taste; dark fruits, malt, and belgian yeast dominate but there’s so much more--and different from one bottle to the next (though, I suppose this could mean the potential for quality control issues but the two times I have had this beer I was never disappointed). Wonderfully complex, very sophisticated and refined in a way that I find other high abv % beers sometimes lack. Not much else I can say that hasn’t already been said one hundred times over!

Prunes, raisons, licorice... this thick, hartwarming beer with a finish that goes on for 30 seconds reminds me of a walk through the woods in autumn, on a sunny afternoon. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Clear dark ruby with light brown foam head, lacing to glass. Aroma is light caramel, some sweet fruit tones. Taste is appealing mixture of light sweet, little bitter, grassy and floral notes. Long lastng aftertaste. (Velp 201304)

Pours a beautiful beer. Smells a bit like wine. Droves. Dark fruites. Starts really sweet with a nice bitter end. Complex taste. Some coffee, malts, roasty. The palate is prrfect. Nice thick body, sticky dry texture. I like it but certainly not the perfect beer for me.

@ abt blind tasting. cloudy, almost muddy, light brown with a very nice off-white head, good retention and lacing. welch grape fruit juice, figs, big red fruits and chocolate, peppered cherries, obvious belgium craft. soft carbonation, medium to full body, very nice grassy, earthy finish. very complex, nice brew!

Bottle, deep red, aroma of berry, grape, sweet malt. This is I think the only trappist brew I hadn’t tried, at first it tastes similar to the others, however, the flavours run so deep here and the aroma and mouthfeel is massive, you can understand and appreciate why this beer gets, and deserves its reputation. Deep and stunning Belgian ale. Wonderful.

33cl bottle. Pours dark red with substantial creamy off-white head. Red grape, fruits, and hints of yeast in both aroma and taste. The palate is sugary (from malts) and dry at the same time. Subtle touch of alcohol. Medium body, perfect carbonation. A really unique Quadrupel, but a little too vinious for my taste. Good stuff anyway.

From bottle at In De Vrede in Westvleteren today. Poured dark brown with a beige head. Aromas of dark fruit, spices, clove, yeast, sugar. At the first sip, it doent’ all come together right away. A few sips in, it all starts. Extremely complex and balanced beer. A masterpiece.

Westvleteren XII: 10.2% bottle from Rakuten 6-pack 2012: wow, what a beautiful looking beer! It pour a dark rich brown with a bit of a reddish tint. A thick head of beige foam with massive staying power(5 minutes and it has barely moved!) Fantastic mouthfeel, you can feel you are drinking a meal. The aroma is like a red wine or port, sweet, malty with maybe a bit of nuttiness. The flavor is a bit boozy, plum, bread, a bit of biscuit, port, a complex beer full of flavor. Having recently had a Dark Lord you can definitely put them in the same class, different kind of beers but ultra-high quality. Any beer that reveals new flavors with each sip rocks!