Westvleteren Extra 8

Blue cap stamped "26 08 05." Obtained via trade with Peabody, my new favorite person on earth. Modest pour into my Westvleteren goblet (god it feels good to pour a beer into its specific glass) results in a 1.5 finger vanilla head that peaks a millimeter above the rim of the glass. The beer itself is dark brown and quite murky due to some yeast that snuck into the pour. I get fig, raisin, sour cherry, chocolate, cocoa, yeast, dough, candi sugar, and probably a lot more on the nose. Taste is unbelievable. Every flavor flows into the next with ease and seamlessness. A perfect level of doughy malt flavor sets a foundation upon which cocoa, rum, fig, and cinnamon frolic. I don’t see how any other beer could possibly have so many flavors blended with such subtlety and balance. I would give mouthfeel a 5.5 if I could. Smooth as the finest silk. The carbonation is absolutely quintessential, end of story. I want to drink a barrel of this beer. Overrated? No.

Drank at the Gollem in Amsterdam. Pours a cloudy bright orange color that leaves a small off-white head. A less "hot" version of the 12 with the flavors more noticeable and more lingering. A very fine beer.

Poured a nice brown into the glass. Was way too cold at first, so we let it warm for awhile. Really nice lacing that lasted. Taste was bread, some spice, almonds, ripe fruit with a nice dryness. Slightly over carbonated in my opinion. Nice beer, but not the complete package I was hoping for.

Rating #700. 330 ml bottle purchased on eBay. Pour is a translucent brown-ruby with visible particle floaters and a nice one inch tan head that fades to a 1/4 inch quickly. Aroma of Belgian yeastiness, earthiness and some tobacco notes. Taste is the yeast again, though with some melon sweetness. Also, leather, tobacco, nuttiness, dark chocolate, earth and a touch of spiciness towards the finish. No evident heat. Very nice, though the palate was thinner than I was expecting.

Courtesy of Dragonstout. Pours a dark brown with a fizzy white head. Has excellent lacing. Hints of caramel, spice, bready yeast. Finishes with faint pepper taste compounded with a heavy carbonation. I think this is a overrated beer for this style.

Pours a cloudy mahogany color with a thin white head that stayed for the whole ride.Nose is of sweet fruit and alcohol.Flavor is warming, pepper, anise and slightly fruity.Finish is warming leaving the dpice to linger.

I live about 30km from the abbay. If you drink this beer a few month’s after botteling, it is a very good beer. Fresh from botteling it’s also a good beer, but there beer is better when you let it closed for a few months. A lot of my family love this beer more than the 12° Westvleteren. The beer is sweet, with taste of chocolate, hop and malt.

Almost stouty, yellowy irregular head. Wholemeal and sprucey garden herb hop aroma as exuded by a dry unfiltered german helles , leading into ripe berryish fruit, thick spread choc nuttiness, oak,grass,almond,malt loaf.. Sometimes we just make these aromas up,and sometimes they’re really there, mingled but distinct. What a dribble-making complexity of malts and hops .Big booze, blood and bitterness right from the off, developing a smooth nutty choc bittersweetness, coniferous hops and just a touch of paper/nibbled HB that lets it down. (Krusovice?). Apple strudel and caramel sauce ,Twiglet and hazelnut afters, but always that sting of hop bitterness. This beer is so far removed from the sugary flabbiness of other dark Belgian brews of comparable strength. Only Rochefort really runs it close.What a wonderfully lean,hoppy, savoury dark ale. Worth driving 500 miles for a 6pack. (Original rate-4.1)Pours an almost impenetrable dark mahogany flecked with white. Head is yellowish and dimpled, collapsing into a marbled slick of whirls and clumps. Aroma bitingly sulphurous, yeasty and packed with nutty roasted malt. Raisiny dark fruit devloping as it hits room temperature. Sniffs like a slightly eggy, malt-heavy English cask bitter, with a distinct note of snatch. Flavour initially aggressively bitter but not especially roasty, mellowing into a seductive interplay of bitter chocolate, nuts and the same powerful bittering hops that underpin the Blond and the 12. Quite acidic and dry in the finish. There’s a fair amount of sugar goes into these beers, but it doesn’t really come across because the hopping is so robust. Palate characteristically light, but only serving to enhance the beer’s already dangerous drinkability. Not especially rich or complex, but it’s the savoury, skillfully uncomplicated pairing of bitter hops and malts that mark this out as a great beer. Deliciously balanced dark ale.