Westvleteren 12

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

Tasted 26/07/2008. 330ml bottle carried all the way from the UK by hand, through the Green-Watt connections, to Wellington. Then on to Invercargill, via Queenstown on the most amazing flight I’ve ever experienced, to finally share with Sam and Steve the night before we kicked off Yeastie Boys. Thank you Richard - you’re a legend. Firstly: has anyone else had bottles with sediment that is almost 1/3 of the bottle? The beer: Ho hum, to be perfectly frank. Pleasant. There’s another bottle in the cellar, so it’ll be interesting to see if another look is any more impressive.

Bottle, 33cl. Pours a reddish-brown beer with an off-white head. The aroma is sweet with caramel, raisin and fruits. The flavor follows the nose and leaves a rich and complex mouthfeel. Overall this is one of the best beers to style.

Poured a hazy brown color with a tiny off white head. Aroma was of a lot of dark fruits, caramel, nuts and some alcohol. Flavor was lots of caramel, and some fig and dates, and some grass with a nice alcohol warmth and thickness in the swallow. Pretty good, but I would prefer a Rochefort 10

The beer is dark brown with a tone of red, and a huge head. Aroma of caramel, alcohol, prunes and cherries perhaps - sweet. The flavor is of dark fruit, cherries, caramel and a bit of burn from the alcohol to balance the sweetness.

Rating #100. Sincere thanks to ajm for leaving this in my fridge. It would have been better shared, but there’s no way I could keep staring at this one. Poured a robust/murky brown from the bottle with a thick tan head of foam. Notes of lemon zest, almost like a pilsner, in the nose as well as some hazlenut. Very unsuspecting until the molasess, caramel, apple, hazenut, and smoke slam your palette. Aggressive, yet sweet, with mild carbonation. Distinctly German. Plenty of sediment. Certainly a treat, but not quite the Holy Grail of Beers.

Thanks cmubeerman, side-by-side with Westy 8. 2+ years old. Creamy head with a mahogany-chestnut body. Almost minty aroma, cherries, dark fruit, anise, cloves, coriander, cardamom. Much more complex, fruity, and boozy than the 8. Flavor is malty, smooth, and complex. Round, bitter, and boozy finish.

Bottle from ebay. Dark brown with a garnet tint and no head. Raisin, fig, and brown sugar and grain aroma. Initial taste has some wine like character with raisin and dark fruit flavors, mild spice, brown sugar, and subtle vanilla followed by a sweet oat and cereal grain taste with some perceptible alcohol in the finish. Quite complex, subtle and delicately balanced flavors. It’s quite good, but it’s not an over the top aggressive beer, which is what I prefer. Nevertheless, it probably deserves it place at the top.

Rating 500. First of all, a major thank you to daknole who threw this in as a bonus brew in a recent trade. You really didn’t have to, but thank you. Bottle (cap reading 12.02.11) poured into trappist glass- poured a murky darken caramel color, tan whisps on top of the liquid surface for a head, initial low-medium carbonation of tiny bubbles. Aroma of figs, plums, moist raisins, and yeast- highly appealing. Hits the mouth with well defined medium body, some sweetness like light caramel and brown sugar comes in but is very subdued, malt is detectable but could be slightly more pronounced, very mild spices in the middle, cream on the back end of the tasting, finish lasts and has very little alcohol character to it. Very well balanced and extremely drinkable. A real treat!