Westvleteren Extra 8

Brewed by Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Westvleteren, Belgium

330. Thanks, Maria! Pours deep grainy and murky dark brown. Impossibly massive head, even splitting the beast between two glasses--20:1 ratio between head and actual beer for a good 30 seconds. Wet, earthy, leafy, and loamy nose. Medium body; pleasantly restrained carb and a fullness that’s not overbearing or overly weighty. Interesting mix of dark wet earth and some dark nut and cola notes along with it. Nice mild sticky sour finsh--great stuff; thanks again, Maria!

Pours a deep mahogany brown with a massive creamy, yet foamy beige head. Massive lacing from top to bottom. Aroma of dark fruit, spicy esters, freshly baked bread and fine yeast. Complex flavor of dark fruits, primarily figs and plums, fresh bread, spicy esters, black cherry, dark sugar, malts, chocolate and fresh yeast, Very well balanced and exceptionally crafted. Gets better as it warms up.

almost as great as 12. Great aroma and the flavor, well u know, legendary. Nice sweet, malty flavor heaven. alright now I’m craving one just thinking about it

Trapist beers belong to the best beers in the world. One more beer to prove it. A really full bodied and very tastfull beer. Still have some old ones to drink

Dark murky brown, with a thick & persistent head, and copious lacing. Huge aroma, fruity with cherry, figs, plums, but also spicy with cinnamon, coriander, black pepper. Vanilla, dark sugar, and some pleasant yeastiness. Very rounded. The taste was bold, but well-balanced. A very full spectrum, starting out sweet with dark fruit, then progressing into yeasty tanginess and finishing dry. Quite hot, but that fits the character of the beer very well. Mouthfeel was soft, low carbonation. Not bad, indeed.

Deep, dark brown with amber highlights and a creamy, sticky head of foam. Aroma of dark malts, coffee, cocoa, but also dry fruits. Flavor is initially sweet--raisin, brown sugar, and faint, dark chocolate--before going into a superb balance of sweet and bitter. Malty backdrop gets deeper at the end. Rather dry, lightly carbonated, somewhat creamy. Like the 12, for me, the real miracle is in the balance. So many nice attributes, and none of them dominant over another. No real weaknesses here. The only letdown would be if you drank the 12 first, or any beer with an extremity that would ruin your palate.

Being a complete novice I was keen to experience a beer that has, by some, been judged as a world-beater. So I dug around and purchased a bottle of Westvleteren extra 8 that I found on EBAY - paid 12 pounds for it. I inexpertly found it quite heavy, vry fruity - plums & cherry. It was a very pleasant drink with a sherry’ish flavour.

Bottle at Vrede. Dark brown color with small long lasting head. Chocolate, coffee, sweetish, herbs, with stronger malts than hops taste. Medium body. Very fresh from the bottle. Much too drinkable and a superb beer.