Westvleteren Extra 8

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

18.01.11 Almost surreal. Senses heightened. Attention focused. Rich cola nut aroma, reminds me of many other Belgian strong ales I’ve had and while good, not shattering to my perceptions of beer. Maybe it’s like standing next to the Pope at a urinal and realizing that he’s still just a dude. In the end this is still beer. Dark murky brown, arrogant tan head receded on its own time while I wrote all of this and now some grape jelly comes out. Light pencil shavings also. I get too much alcohol here, some plum, more cola, and little of anything I’d call divine. I never want to be seen as that guy who revels in ripping on whatever’s popular, but I just don’t get this. I have another bottle older than this one and I’ll look deep into it when I crack it down the road.

Rating 400. Giant thanks to MrChopin for this one. Pours a deep, dark brown, with some ruby accents showing through, and an incredibly dense, light tan head. We’re talking cappuccino froth. Dark fruits, caramel apples (like honeycrisp apples dipped in real caramel), milk chocolate and spices on the nose. I don’t know how they make these brews so creamy while retaining so much carbonation. The palate may be one of the best parts - so silky smooth. Flavors line up with the nose, adding perhaps some grape must. The profile is akin to the 12 but without quite the knockout punch. My favorite part? The flavor lingers forever. Very full mouthfeel, quenching in the mouth, but finishes clean. The head lingers forever. This is superb.

This is an excellent beer. Dark brown with a thin tan head. Head dissapates quickly. Lots of yeast on the second pour. It has an amazing flavor. Dark dried fruit, caramel, malty with a hint of earth. The flavors are all subtle and well balanced. Medium body, good carbonation, no trace of alcohol and it is very drinkable. I was most impressed with the drinkability of this beer. Most beers of this strength and flavor can be heavy, alcoholic or both. Fantastic beer that was unable to live up to the hype or price tag.

AS good as it can get. I was a bit biased against this beer, due to the hype. Everybody has written how it looks. The taste is very complex and changing in the mouth. I could miss the sting of the alcohol from the nose and aroma.

Pours dark mahogny with a creamy creme white head. Chocolate, apples and date plum. Chocolaty and fruity with a brittish bitter hop finish. Gets more buttery and sweet as the temperature increses. (drink while cooler)

It poured a dark liquid with some tones of red and brown and a small foam that left a little lacing. There was also some yeast in the liquid. The aroma was strong with chocolate, red berries, coffey and spices. Complex and very nice. The first sip was very fizzy. So fizzy in fact that I didn’t sense any flavor at all. After waiting a bit and let the fizzyness reside a bit I started to get a better grasp of the beer and it improved allot. It had a spicey flavor with some chocolate, red berries, nuts, orange peels and dried fruit. It also had a bite to it that I actually enjoyed, normally that would have been a bad thing but in this beer it really worked.

Bottle. Ap: Nice mahogny color with a long lasting off white head. Ar: Date, chocolate, appe (fruity + sour alcohol thing, maybe cognac?) Fla: Vinous. Some kind of british hop bitterness. Lots of fruit and chocolate. Complex but yet easy to drink. Ov: As good as Westvleteren 12.

I was actually really disappointed here, I was hoping for a more drinkable version of the 12, and the aroma matched well with the nutty sweetness, however the flavor had a lot of breadiness to it, which isn’t bad, but just doesn’t match the same caramely sweet raisin notes that I get from the 12.