Westvleteren 12

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

Thx to Ralph at Volo. Didn’t take notes so this is from memory and won’t do it justice but if I don’t jot down notes when the hell will I have this one again. So here goes. Muddy brown with no head. Aroma hard to describe as it all blends so well. Raisin, toffee, honey, spicy, etc, etc. Flavour again hard to distinguish as it all goes together so well. As aroma indicates, toffee, raisin, honey, port. Sweet flavour explosion, tingles the cheeks and warms going down. Smooth as silk taste.

I love this beer...This is the perfect beer...complex and worth every bit of the hype..............................................

With thanks to a trade with Blutt59 for sending me this long sought after beer. Shared with HogTownHarry. Appearance: Thick dark, murky brown with a wispy brown head. Aroma: Too much going on! Caramel, spice, yeast, leather, rosehip, ginger, malt, alcohol, cinnamon yet somehow very muted and understated - like a torpedo, just tremendous. Flavour: Wow, spicy, malty, like a well worn leather jacket. Whiskey and woody, sticky & toffee. some spilled on my my fingers and they were sticking together. Just so much dark fruit, figs, xmas pudding, cherries, red wine, ginger again, tingling my tongue, long sticky finish, just tremendous! I can’t believe I’ve finally got the chance to have it. Thanks to Blutt59 and HogTownHarry for bringing me on this beer journey. Beer #1000

Murky brown, deeply fruity ale has overlying rough & bucolic character. Very textural with surprisingly grippy palate from the assertive hop bitterness, almost grainy malts and a touch of alcohol. Underlying sweet silky deep fruit adds countering smoothness - and solid weight. LOTS of additions in this brew. So many flavors, wine fruit java-roast honey and spice. This beer is fairly big and makes itself FELT - in ways reminding me equally of barley wine and porto, but that doesn’t really say it. Acceptably tough and demanding, while also soothing - will need to enjoy more samples when I travel locally in the region. Much less smooth than St. Bernardus Abt, this (Feb 2008 bottle) Westvleteren Abt is no doubt as variable as Rochefort but experience will tell me more. A Kudos to Ralph M for my #600.

Sampled many, many, times at the café across the street from the abbey. Drove up from Paris just to try it. I wasn’t disappointed - great aromas, great taste. Even 6 beers later I was tasting different things - coffee, chocolate...more? A complexity that’s amazing, the real disappointment is that it’s too hard to get. These guys should take a cue from Chimay and realize their lost revenue could really benefit the surrounding community.

a bottle of westvleteren doesn’t come with a label on the bottle and is normaly only sold at the brewery itself the stuff you can buy on the net there for is a lot of times fake beware of that before spending a lot of money

Ok just finished my 1st Westy 12! Very similar to St. Bernardus 12, I know St. B. brewed Westvleteren up until 1996. Honestly the smell is what i really noticed at first and set it apart from the St. Bernadus. Very dark of course it is a quad with sediment. Flavor was fantastic cannot describe it really so many raisin, dark fruit flavors, cherry and others cannot describe in detail sorry. At first it was a bit too cold so there was a slight alcohol finish, but as it warmed no detection of any alcohol and just great feel overall while drinking. Overall a great ale id put it up against 1st in a blind taste test with a St. Bernardus 12 and i will. My recomendations drink it at a little below room temperature 70 degrees IMO.

Was planning on ageing this for awhile but something inside just told me to drink it tonight during a nice summer thunder storm. Poured a smooth brown and settled into a darker shade of deep dark brown in the glass. The head was foamy and thick and held an almost indigo hue. As I polished off the pour, the sweet smell hit me...raisins and rum mostly. Tasting this behemoth was a stage-by-stage event that involved multiple phases and finishes. Stage 1: Lots of raisins on the taste buds, some alcohol presence felt as my whole tongue kinda tingled upon the first sips...felt really good. Finish was very rounded, slightly hoppy, and so smooth and balanced. Stage 2: As it warmed up, that alcohol became far more evident in the taste...almost canceling out all of the raisin aspects from before and introducing some kind of medicine-like feel...not unpleasant...but reminded me of vodka with it’s icy, somewhat metallic tone. At this point in time, the smell seemed sweeter and made me think of cotton candy and the finish had quite a burn to it. Stage 3; That burning sensation has tapered off a bit but still noticing mostly alcohol in the finish; although the balance remains stable. Stage 4: I’m thinking of port now, some smoke and a slightly toasted flavour that is difficult to pinpoint. Some fruity aspects coming out to me now also...apricot, apples, grapes. Stage 5: Coming near to the end of the glass now...sad to say. More of a distinct bitter sweetness coming through in the taste...brown sugar, cloves, spice, and cinnamon. But those elements are kind of attempting to cut through that thick hazy alcohol wall and not always making it. There is a sort of tar-like flavour that I am detecting along with orange peel and a burnt coffee zest. As I downed the final drop, it kind of sent a slight shiver through my body. The monks done good again. Bottom line: an interesting beer for sure, not sure how often I could truly drink these and seems like something I could enjoy more in the dead of winter...especially around Christmas/New Years Eve. Festive, complex, and comes across more like a Belgian Barleywine than anything else. So glad I could drink this. Will try and keep my patience and age the next one properly and compare.