Westvletern 12 - My 40 page journey to monastery in Belgium to finally try the Westvleteren 12

Reads 5055 • Replies 64 • Started Tuesday, August 15, 2017 6:47:21 PM CT

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Message BeerSensations beers 1 º 09:07 Thu 8/17/2017 Originally posted by adamnowek Every time you call it Westy, god kills a Belgian. haha!
Message BeerSensations beers 1 º 09:12 Thu 8/17/2017 Originally posted by TBone I wonder if they are nowadays releasing more bottles for official resale as W12 is sold even by FInnish state alcohol monopole Alko (20,16€/bottle). Hi TBone! That might actually be true. When I first read wikipedia about Trappist beers it said that they produce 4750 hL beer but when when I inteviewed the monastery they said that the production now is 6000 hL. Half of which is Westvleteren 12. So it seems that they have increased the production somewhat actually. Its really not fair that the Finnish state sell this beer and not the Swedish! :P Not cool. Is there a good availability as well?
Message BeerSensations beers 1 º 17:01 Thu 8/17/2017 Originally posted by Maakun Nice read! But these prices in the Brussels tourist bars/shops are crazy, there’s plenty of places in Belgium and even surrounding countries where you can get it a lot cheaper. That sounds intriguing! The cheapest i managed to find was Au Brasseur (bar) and the Beer store Brussels and they both charged 15 Euro a bottle. What other places do you know about that are cheaper? It would be awesome to add a few places to the list :)

Message stevoj P beers 16126 º places 1243 º 14:00 Fri 8/18/2017 Originally posted by BeerSensations Originally posted by stevoj A few other facts about the phone ordering. They tell you what you will be getting the day they tell you it is ready. For the one time I got through, they provided the date and the time and told me it was for Westy 8. It depends on what has just been bottled. You also need to provide your vehicle license number, and the make and model of the car, so that eliminates any rental vehicles. Payment is in cash at the time of pickup. Includes deposits on the bottle and wooden crates. I kept mine. Cool, was it hard to get through to get the Westvleteren 8? I guess the demand for those should is less than for the 12s. Did they provide you with a date and time for pickup, or can you decide that yourself? You can actually check at their website what beer you are calling for. They have a coloured schedule with info about what beer the land line is open for at specific days and hours. See this page for phone hours by date: http://sintsixtus.be/trial/bier-reserveren/ Seems to be a 2.5 hour window today for the Westvleteren Blonde. that may be a newer feature. I got mine in 2013. Down to my last two bottles of the 8. So four years old and its still doing really well. I was calling every day, and was surprised I got through.
Message SilkTork P beers 7751 º places 111 º 18:36 Fri 8/18/2017 Originally posted by BeerSensations Originally posted by Maakun Nice read! But these prices in the Brussels tourist bars/shops are crazy, there’s plenty of places in Belgium and even surrounding countries where you can get it a lot cheaper. That sounds intriguing! The cheapest i managed to find was Au Brasseur (bar) and the Beer store Brussels and they both charged 15 Euro a bottle. What other places do you know about that are cheaper? It would be awesome to add a few places to the list :) Most beer geeks know of shops in their area which sell it. I’ve always bought mine here in the UK - apart from some vintage St. Bernardus brewery bottles I picked up in Amsterdam. I’ve never paid exorbitant prices for the regular or the vintage. You can also buy it online in several places - such as http://www.beerofbelgium.com/en/trappist-westvleteren-12-33cl.html and https://www.westvleterenbeers.com/shop/ I’d quite fancy buying a couple of cases from the monastery for the fun of it, but I think that in itself is quite a tricky route. Certainly trickier than getting it via the more conventional ways that most of us have used. There are some desirable beers that are genuinely hard to get hold of - if you want a theme for your blog, you could start a quest for beers such as Hair of the Dog Dave. Or, better yet, go dig out some of the really vintage beers such as Bass Kings Ale or Allsopp’s Arctic Ale (which has eluded me). We know there are only a few of these beers left, and that each time someone opens a bottle and drinks it, there is one less bottle left in the world! http://zythophile.co.uk/2012/06/10/an-1875-arctic-ale-tasting/
Message BeerSensations beers 1 º 06:43 Sat 8/19/2017 Originally posted by SinH4 Nice work on the extensive and informative blogpost! Originally posted by BeerSensationsSeems like they had quite a stock or I was just lucky to get some that were not fresh from the brewery. Some people would not be happy about that. "Americans hunt this beer because they think it’s the best beer in the world, and then they bring it back to the states, then it’s half a year old, they open it, and it’s oxidized and undrinkable. And their mind believes that this is a good beer when it’s oxidized, because everyone says so." - Armand Debelder [paraphrased] Personally, though (having done verticals), it really doesn’t matter that much, it’s a great beer at all ages. Originally posted by BeerSensations When I talked to a brother working in the monastery about the aging process, he described the difference in taste with age, that the beer develops towards port as in port wine. I would definitely agree. I compared a 14-year old bottle I’ve had about a year ago with Pedro Ximenez Sherry in my rating, so Port would probably fit as well. Thanks SinH4 :) Thats awesome, a 14-year-old Westvleteren 12. :O It will take some time before I can do the same test ^^ It is quite amazing that a beer still is drinkable after 14 years to be honest. How would you further compare it to a fresh Westvleteren 12, except that its more like port wine? Is it still roughly the same taste or did it change alot after all those years?
Message BeerSensations beers 1 º 06:46 Sat 8/19/2017 Originally posted by stevoj Originally posted by BeerSensations Originally posted by stevoj A few other facts about the phone ordering. They tell you what you will be getting the day they tell you it is ready. For the one time I got through, they provided the date and the time and told me it was for Westy 8. It depends on what has just been bottled. You also need to provide your vehicle license number, and the make and model of the car, so that eliminates any rental vehicles. Payment is in cash at the time of pickup. Includes deposits on the bottle and wooden crates. I kept mine. Cool, was it hard to get through to get the Westvleteren 8? I guess the demand for those should is less than for the 12s. Did they provide you with a date and time for pickup, or can you decide that yourself? You can actually check at their website what beer you are calling for. They have a coloured schedule with info about what beer the land line is open for at specific days and hours. See this page for phone hours by date: http://sintsixtus.be/trial/bier-reserveren/ Seems to be a 2.5 hour window today for the Westvleteren Blonde. that may be a newer feature. I got mine in 2013. Down to my last two bottles of the 8. So four years old and its still doing really well. I was calling every day, and was surprised I got through. How would you say the Westvleteren 8 ages? Is it a big difference between a 4 year old version compared to a fresh one?

Message Maakun beers 10309 º places 319 º 07:03 Sat 8/19/2017 Originally posted by SilkTork https://www.westvleterenbeers.com/shop/ Euh, that’s even more expensive than most other places that sell Westvleteren...
Message Maakun beers 10309 º places 319 º 07:04 Sat 8/19/2017 Originally posted by BeerSensations Originally posted by Maakun Nice read! But these prices in the Brussels tourist bars/shops are crazy, there’s plenty of places in Belgium and even surrounding countries where you can get it a lot cheaper. That sounds intriguing! The cheapest i managed to find was Au Brasseur (bar) and the Beer store Brussels and they both charged 15 Euro a bottle. What other places do you know about that are cheaper? It would be awesome to add a few places to the list :) Basically every beer bar and shop in Belgium and The Netherlands has it. Usually between 9-13 euro for the 12.
Message MacBoost beers 2074 º places 37 º 09:12 Sat 8/19/2017 Blogs are pretty much the worst thing on the internet. Beer blogs doubly so.