Westvleteren 12

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

Serve in Trappist glass

Date: October 22, 2011 Mode: Bottle Source: Darkness Day. Full description not available as I sampled way too many beers during Darkness Day!

UPDATED: DEC 3, 2011 This is one of the best Trapist beer I?ve ever drink. It has this sweet taste in mouth, I cannot forget it especially when it is a bit aged

33 cL glass at In de Vrede. Very dark brown, with an attractive caramel head in its own glass. Smells sweet, slightly roasted and spiced, but not overpowering. Hint of caramel, roastiness, warming and rich. Excellent and well worth the trip.

Donker bruin bier, beige schuimkraag. Vrij zoetig aroma, rozijnen, mout, pruimen, vrij fruitig, licht chocolade en gist. Smaak vrij zoetig, candij, gedroogde pruimen, kruidig, caramel. Kruidig zoete nasmaak, beetje kleverig.

Saved this big one for my rating # 250! 10 cl - 15 cl. sample from 33 cl. bottle. Very dark, chestnut brown/plum colour with cooper- brown hues and a medium sized frothy, beige head that slowly fades into a thin lasting cap. Sporadic spots of lace left behind. Spicy, yeasty aroma with tons of vinous dark fruits, peppers and earthy hops. Very complex, medium sweet taste with lots of plums, grapes, raisins, figs, dates and dark cherries. This is supplemented by nice, roasted malts with notes of chocolate and caramel and subtle pines. This beers aroma and taste is exceptional. Full bodied with a perfect balance of sweet, vinous dark fruits, yeasts, spices, earthy hops, roasted malts and sweet notes of alcohol. Soft carbonation. Lots of peppers and coriander that lingers throughout over the complex body into a sweet, yet dry finish. This is quickly followed by a delicious dark fruit presence with hints of plums, grapes, dark cherries, figs and raisins. Fuller bodied than other beers in the style with a slightly roasted character with hints of chocolate, toffee and caramel. In addition to all of these flavors, there is a subtle, earthy hop presence that adds more depth, balance and complexity to the beer. The high alcohol content is excellently masked with little to no warmth in the never ending finish. Overall, this beer incredibly complex, delicious and extremely drinkable. The best example of the style that I ever have tried and one of the best beers I have ever sampled.

I just posted some comments on Reddit, this is what I wrote: Saturday night at my brother’s house, we start with a Pliny the Elder, kill some time talking, and then to the main event. He brings out a Westvleteren 12 with no sticker, plain brown bottle, some letters stand out from the neck of the bottle and only the cap informs that this indeed is the famous beer; unopened, we let it rest for 10 minutes, to let it raise its temperature slightly. My control beer, from memory, is a St. Bernardus Abt 12 which in my opinion is the best beer I have tried: complex, sweet, fruity, toasty, aromatic, just wonderful! I pour, slowly into Chimay chalices, and see how a perfect brown sugar colored foam develops on top, crowning a dark molasses colored liquid. The aromas, are muted, the taste is amazing, crazy good, similar to the St. Bernardus, but slightly more controlled, I feel it has no edges, it is more composed. But, weren’t they supposed to be like twins? Same recipe, yeast, water! To me, it tasted restrained, perhaps I could not appreciate the highest ranked of beers, I felt guilty: In my mind, the St. B was better, tasted courageous, like tradition, like a great beer: what Aragorn toasts and drinks with when in the company of great men! W 12 is great, but perhaps the hype led me to expect something far better in orders of magnitude that what I had in my hand? Is it really 20 or 30 times much better than a New Belgium Abbey Ale or a Malheur 10? Is it that the beer cognoscenti tout it as The Pinnacle of Greatness, knowing that this beer is almost impossible to obtain for an ordinary citizen, and thus will remain as a barrier of entry into their beer tasting club? Or maybe it is like the story about the tulips in the Netherlands. I feel disappointed, just have to figure out if with the hype or myself.

2009 bottle opened at Mane Liquor after 16 hours of stock take, I think we deserved this one. Pours an oily chestnut brown - quite cloudy. Leaves a small but very creamy beige head. Oily lacing trickles down th glass. Lighter in colour than I was expecting. My nose is completely saturated in aromas of plum and grapes with and an underriding sweetness behind it all. Reminds me of a sweet, freshly cut piece of christmas fruit cake - lots of dark fruits and a sweet vanilla tone. The mass amounts of fruit come through in the taste. Lots of plum, raisins and grapes. Reminds me a little bit of this sparkling grape juice I used to have when I was younger. Grape undertones are very prominant. Quite a heavy, vanilla escence-like sweetness throughout the brew. Mouth feel is medium with soft carbonation. The sweetness lingered on forever. I did think the mouth feel could have been a little more full but at 12% it drank closer to a 5% beer. Very nice quad but I would still a prefer a big stout anyday

This is the best beer of the world, no doubt. It is a pitty that it is so rare tot get. I am happy to be a Belgian and be able to know this beer.