Westvleteren Extra 8

Pours a beautiful dark reddish/brown with a frothy ½ inch off white/an head. Smells of rich malts, fruity hops, and Belgian yeasts. First sip is way smooth, crisp, and tangy with a lovely balance of malt, hops, and yeast. Sweet and then slightly bitter with pears being the dominate fruit. Super creamy lacing clings so happily to the sides of the glass. So very good...so very good indeed. World Class

33cl bottle fruity aroma compleet palate and not to strong, sweet taste, and a good nose

Bottle 330ml, in Westvleteren goblet. Having looked forward to sampling the Westvs with no little anticipation, and wondering whether I had been duped at all by the superlative and overwhelming hype, with the Westvleteren8, the answer is a resounding no. Pours a beautiful dark chocolate, and luscious on both the nose and the palate. Rounded on the palate, of dark fruit, malt, yeast and hops. A cracking beer.

Bottle courtesy of Brad -- thank you!!!

I don’t even want to try to deconstruct this beer, it’s just too good. A very rare 10 for rich, complex yeasty, dark dried-fruit aroma that is almost a bit wild,, a quite rare 5 for the divine carbonation that melts across my palate. Gently spicy, mildly sweet, long dusty finsh. I just could not say enough good things about this one. Stunning.

33cl bottle, marked 29.09.10. All I can say is WOW! This is by far my favorite Westy brew. Pours dark brown with burgundy highlights and a thin offwhite head. Smells sweet and dark fruity with some yeast and a hint of spice. Tastes sweet and dark fruity with figs and plums and raisins. Some bready yeasty flavors as well, slight spiciness. Lots of fruit flavors, very nice. Medium body, fizzy carbonation.

Used a chalice for this one, as it deserves. Pours a very dark clear amber color, nice carbonation, nice off-white almost 2 finger head which lasts quite awhile, leaves some nice islands and sticky lacing. The nose is of sweet malts, yeast, grapes, figs, raisins, slight caramel. The taste is absolutely delicious of malts/yeast, and grapes. Very tangy, a nice touch of fizzy on the tongue as it goes down, pretty carbonated. Medium body, a very complex brew. Very drinkable, ABV hidden very well, not noticeable in the nose or taste for that matter. Highly recommended.

My visit to the cafe In de Vrede was awesome and the beer was terrific. All 3 Westvleteren beers offered there were great, to include this one. Red brown body color...the head is not as sturdy as the blonde or the 12, but is still thick and creamy. Same boiling mash smell as the blonde and the 12, but the cereal smell is a bit sweeter. In flavor, this beer lacks the fruitiness of the 12 but adds additional sweetness and some sour. Surprisingly not malty in flavor. Mouthfeel is quite good; despite the sweetness the beer is not overly sticky. Very good. I would highly recommend this.

Opened in celebration of Tampa’s AL Pennant.
V - ruby dark brown color with a voluminous head
A - pungent fruit spice aroma, cherry, raisins, spice
T - Slight alcohol noticable with lots of dark fruit spices, some caramel and malts
P - incredibly balanced.