St. Bernardus Abt 12 Special Edition

Formerly brewed at St. Bernard Brouwerij
Style: Abt/Quadrupel
Watou, Belgium

# 1300. Served cold. At the low temperature there is a substantial hop profile. The beer is brown and much lighter than I expected. Some sediment. The high abv is obvious in the taste and the aroma, but it works in this beer. As this warms, it gets sweeter and is more like a traditional abbot style beer. Flavor includes banana, sweet malt, apple, and yeast. A great anniversary beer.

Poured a ruby brown color with a nice initial head, very good lacing. Did this alongside the std. 12, the std 12 aged, and a roche 10 aged 2yrs. The aroma was yeasty and spicey (coriander along with some phenolic peppery qualities that were not as prominent in the standard version). The flavor was dark fruits, coriander, yeast, a very nicely balanced quad, finishing somewhat dry (from the hops?). Mouthfeel was creamy and smooth. A nice beer, can’t say I like it more than the regular Abt 12, but probably more drinkable.

Pours dark brown with a medium head. Aroma is fruity with a bit of grassiness. Flavor is complex and not overbearing. Fruit flavors mix well with yeast and alcohol. Alcohol flavor is a little more pronounced than int he non-special edition. This is an exceptional beer, but not quote as good as the regular ABT12.

750 ml bottle. Pours cloudy amber with a nice stable off white head. Sweet, sugary, alcholic nose. Taste is sweet, and tasty, with a big alcholic burn. This is a good quad, lots going on.

Had this blind next to a westy 12. Although there are some similarities these are two totally different beers. Poured an identical color to the westy, almost impossible to distinguish the two. Aroma was dark fruits and some spicy astringency. Flavor was very good but not nearly as smooth or creamy as the westy.

Pours a burnt copper color, with a big light tan head. Nice sweet candi sugar, banana, earthy lager-like sweetness. Great grape like sweetnesss, as well as a little bit of caramel sweetness. Great beer, that will be reviewed again soon.

Bottle. Brownish- with ruby edges. Nose is very Belgian, lots of yeasty notes, with some dark malt, candy sugar and brown sugar noticed. Flavour is quite sweet and yeasty, with noticable alcohol coming through. A bit too sweet and sugary for me.

This pouted a dark red with a minimal white foamy head. The aroma was of a sweet malt and the flavor likewise was very sweet with malt dominant. I thought I detected a hint of peat on the tail end.